


Game On - A Sanvers Fic

by Morgana24



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Endgame, F/F, Sanvers - Freeform, Sanvers Big Bang 2020, Video Game, vr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 75,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26994085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgana24/pseuds/Morgana24
Summary: A series of mysterious deaths, ruled natural causes, leave Alex feeling there’s nothing natural about them. The only tie she can find between victims is their job as video game testers. Alex isn’t the only one pursuing these possible homicides, however.Maggie Sawyer of the NCPD is detecting her way through these cases, and when a certain redheaded “FBI” agent shows up looking into her case, well, that just makes Maggie even more curious.Their research will lead them into a strange new world where they not only find the truth about what's going on, but also something much more important: each other.A huge thanks toSmarterinabsentiafor the artwork for this fic, which you can findhereandhere!
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Comments: 249
Kudos: 97
Collections: Sanvers Big Bang | 2020





	1. Prologue

Twenty-seven years should not equal one lifetime on this Earth, but sometimes fate is a bitch, and _should_ and _did_ just don’t see eye to eye. Alex stared down at the picture in her hand, at the woman whose life had been cut short. Black hair, bright green eyes, and a friendly smile met her in return. The background was of a mountain, a photo taken about halfway up to the peak with a cluster of antennae in the background that identified it as Mt. Wilson here in Southern California. She’d been young, active, and by all accounts healthy before her sudden and unfortunate demise. Something was definitely off about this, and it was becoming a trend.

As she looked away from the photo, Alex’s gaze swept the room. Police held the scene, taking photos, gathering evidence, and speaking to the roommate - who had been unfortunate enough to find the body and was obviously shaken up - while they tried to ascertain if they were dealing with a crime scene or not. Everything in Alex said yes, but it took more than well-honed instincts to create a case. She needed facts, and so far, she was short on those.

She stepped closer to the desk with the impressive computer setup. Three monitors, each screen bigger than the entirety of Alex’s laptop at home, covered most of the surface. A keyboard glowed red, and Alex was sure it was as overpriced as it was fancy. She had no idea what the actual system was, but it was an odd looking box that she bet would make Winn have a nerdgasm on the spot. Someone took their gaming seriously, a real tech head. Glowing on all three screens, with a bloody background, were the words “GAME OVER”. No one expected that to be taken so literally.

In the high-backed leather chair, the body sat slumped to the side. Her green eyes stared blankly toward the wall, their lovely color already fading as death claimed more and more of the person she was. She looked fine… besides being dead. There were no obvious signs of injuries, but something had killed this young woman, and making a pretty corpse wasn’t going to be any comfort to her family. Maybe finding whoever was behind this, and Alex was sure someone was, would bring closure.

There was a quick beep in her ear, and then a voice came through her comms. _“Alex, I just wanted to update you. The NCPD won’t have official findings until after an autopsy, but Winn has gained access to the initial police report that they’ve filed. There’s no sign of foul play, and unless the ME disagrees, this will be ruled natural causes.”_

Alex ducked her head and lowered her voice as she checked her surroundings to make sure the cops were far enough away and otherwise occupied. Still her voice came out as a harsh whisper as she scowled. “That’s bullshit. I’m telling you, J’onn, there is no way there is anything natural about this.”

_“Agent Schott is pulling up her medical records now,”_ J’onn replied. _“Perhaps there was an underlying health problem that caused this.”_

“This is the fourth victim this week who has died of so called ‘natural causes’,” Alex set the photo back where she’d found it, peeled off her blue latex gloves and tucked them into her jacket pocket as a couple of plain clothed officers from the NCPD - probably the detectives assigned to the case - entered the room and started conversing with the crime scene investigators. 

The fact there were crime scene investigators here at all told Alex that the police were treating this death as suspicious, too. No matter what the initial report may have said, there was at least one person in the NCPD who was looking at matters her way on this.

“How long until Winn has results?”

_“He said it would be done faster than a box of doughnuts left alone with your sister, so it should be any minute.”_

Given the grim situation, Alex cleared her throat to keep a chuckle at bay. “Yeah, that sounds quick. As soon as he has them—”

“You’re killing me, Smalls!”

That was not the sort of thing someone usually yelled at a crime scene, especially a possible homicide. Alex’s head jerked toward the commotion to see one of the detectives she’d noticed entering earlier, a woman, petite, Latina, and attractive - not that that had any bearing on her job performance - waving an evidence bag while a heavy frown painted her face. By the way two other uniformed officers backed away from a third as the petite detective bore down on their position, it wasn’t difficult to deduce at whom she was yelling.

_“Alex, what’s wrong?”_

“Not sure, maybe nothing. It’s just a little commotion. Stand by, J’onn.”

The detective had reached her target, and target was the key word here. Though the uniformed officer probably stood a foot taller than the detective and was easily half again her mass, there was no doubt who was in charge. “Do you remember that conversation we had about proper bagging and tagging evidence procedure, Officer Smalls?”

The cops eyes darted left and right, but his fellows had fled the area, both suddenly finding something that needed their attention on scene. Help wouldn’t be coming. “Yes, Detective, and I bagged the evidence and marked it with the time, date, and location, just like you said.”

“Just like I said? Just like I said!?” The detective’s voice grew louder each time she spoke. Even at a distance, it was enough to make Alex wince. “I _said_ to mark each item with the time, date, and location and bag them _separately_. Does this look separate to you?” She shook the bag again, this time close to the uniform’s face.

He recoiled slightly but offered a smile, however insincere, along with his explanation. “No, Ma’am, but they’re the same thing. They go together.”

The detective’s response was quiet but still audible. Though Alex didn’t speak the language, she’d lived long enough in southern California to recognize Spanish and also know when someone was dropping the f-bomb along with a few other choice curse words.

“Smalls,” the detective took a deep breath, releasing it slowly and speaking in a more regulated tone, “do you remember that little discussion you and I had about DNA?”

He nodded quickly.

“And what did we say about it?”

“Um… everyone has it, and it can help us solve crimes, so be less of a dumbass than the criminals.”

“I… yeah, that last part does sound like me,” the detective admitted, a bit more of her anger seeming to fade as she took that in, but it didn’t last. Before long, she was right back to her terse instructions. “What I said was deoxyribonucleic acid is the molecule that contains the genetic code for all organisms, and that means all humans. DNA is unique to each person. It’s only a 0.1% difference, but that means there are over three million differences between your genome and someone else’s. It’s the single most important piece of evidence we can secure to verify someone was at the site of a crime.” Okay, so the cute detective was a bit of a science nerd… interesting.

“But fingerprints—”

“Are crap. The ACE-V methodology is completely unreliable.” When he opened his mouth, she raised a finger, pointing directly at his face. “If you say anything about lie detectors, we’re gonna find out if you have the same ass size as my boot size, understand?”

He nodded immediately, apparently no longer interested in bringing up whatever point he’d been about to make.

She raised the evidence bag again, this time holding it up at a level for discussion and not to berate him. “Now, given everything we’ve discussed, do you understand what you did wrong here?”

“Um, I think? I just…” He gestured toward the bag, and she nodded for him to continue which he did with another smile. “But they’re a pair of gloves. They go together.”

Alex couldn't hear what the detective was muttering this time, but by the way she closed her eyes and threw her head back, Alex assumed it was praying. “Christ on a cracker, kid. I’m going to Marie Kondo your ass because you do not spark joy.”

_“Alex, what’s going on?”_

A number of police officers were milling about closer to her now, all having cleared the blast radius of the officer who was getting reamed out with the detective. Not wanting them to overhear her conversation, just in case, she flashed her FBI badge at them when they looked over, made a show of pulling out her cell phone as if she was taking a call so that they wouldn’t try to stop her or talk to her, then made her way back out of the apartment, having seen all she needed to see. She waited until she was alone in the stairwell before she tucked her phone back into her pocket and carried on talking to J’onn. “Sorry, there was a detective in there chewing out a rookie, poor kid. He screwed up, but she really laid into him. I’m glad I don’t work with her.” Alex took the stairs two at a time as she headed toward the ground floor. “Let me know when Winn has answers because this is rubbing me the wrong way. If it was just one person, sure, I’d go with natural causes. Two would be a coincidence. Three is suspicious. But four?”

_“Hmmm, you do have a point,”_ J’onn agreed. _“So what do the other victims all have in common?”_

“Thank you for calling them victims.”

_“I trust your intuition, Alex. You're the best agent I’ve ever trained.”_

“All of them were playing exactly the same VR game.”

_“Anything else?”_

“Nope,” Alex slowed to a light jog as she neared the ground level. “That is literally the only thing they all had in common from what I can tell. They were all playing exactly the same VR game when their hearts gave out on them.”

_“What game?”_ Winn’s voice came across the line now.

“I’ve never heard of it before,” Alex admitted as she remembered something and pulled her phone back out again. “I’m sending you pictures from the scene now.”

A few moments later, and a few keystrokes as Winn did his thing, and there was a confirmation in the form of a _“got them”_ from the tech nerd, which was shortly followed by a _“hmmm”_ of confusion. _“iLand Escape? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it either. Must be a new one.”_

Stepping back out onto the street, Alex made her way over to where she’d parked her bike, then pulled on her helmet. “Any idea where I can get myself a copy? If it’s the only lead we’ve got, it’s worth checking out.”

_“According to this, it’s not on sale yet. It’s still in the beta testing stage. So I don’t know how our victims got hold of it.”_

“Unless they were the betas?” Alex suggested as she swung one leg over her bike, kicked up the stand and then paused. “Wait, there’s the connection! All four victims could have been beta testers of the game.”

_“And if someone is targeting the beta testers, then we could have more innocent lives in danger,”_ J’onn agreed. _“Winn, pull up a list of everyone who was assigned to beta test the game. Supergirl and I will try to get to each of them to warn them. Alex, you need to get your hands on one of those games so that we can find out exactly what we’re dealing with here.”_

“On it,” Alex nodded even though she knew J’onn wouldn’t be able to see. Her Ducati Monster roared to life and slapping down the visor of her helmet, she checked both ways then eased out into the traffic. There was no way she’d be able to remove the game from a crime scene so she didn’t even bother to go back into the apartment she’d just left. Instead she headed for the NCPD precinct, relying on her trusty (fake) FBI badge to hopefully allow her to requisition a copy of the game using more ‘federal’ means.

<><>

Four dead bodies, each vic in their early to mid-twenties, no signs of trauma, no underlying health conditions, just a whole bucket full of squat and nada. With a heavy sigh, Maggie flipped the file open from the latest crime scene. Her name was Sophie Summerland, age twenty-seven, beta tester at Maximum Overdrive Games in National City. The girl’s financials had come back clean, not so much as a parking ticket on her record, and the roommate had said she hadn’t dated in nearly two years. The social media dive and quick scan of her phone Maggie had done agreed. Poor kid hadn’t lived much before she had died.

Maximum Overdrive Games… Maggie drummed her fingers on her desktop as she stared down at that name. The last three deaths she’d felt were suspicious, but what had been ruled natural causes had all worked there too. Her captain called it a coincidence, but Maggie didn’t believe in them. Where others saw unhappy happenstance, Maggie saw enemy action, but that’s what gave her the highest close rate in her department.

She pulled out another file, this one financials on the company in question. It was all publicly available information as she didn’t come close to having enough to get a search warrant, but from here, things looked fine. The stock prices were rising steadily, it had good dividend returns, and there was nothing in the news that made her detective’s brain twitch. Still, she’d left three messages with the CEO’s secretary and not gotten a callback yet. Maybe it was time to head down there and flash her badge in person. If four dead employees in one week didn’t garner a call back, Maggie called that highly suspicious.

Detective Jim Warren glanced up from his computer at the desk across from hers, then sighed and shook his head. “You okay? You look like you’re still fuming from the scene. The way you let that rookie have it—”

“It wasn’t just some rookie, it was Smalls,” Maggie snapped back. “You know his mishandling of evidence cost us the Rodriguez case, and now her murderer is walking free.”

“Look, I get it, but Smalls is a good kid. He just needs some seasoning.”

“You could dose him in azafrán, perejil, and guindilla, and he still wouldn’t be seasoned enough. Do you know how long I spent going over procedures with him? I pulled him into the lab and showed him the end result to give him some practical training.” She slapped the file in front of her closed with a heavy sigh. “You just can’t fix stupid.”

Jim waited a moment, his gaze drifting down to the file on which her hand rested. “You also can’t get blood out of a stone. It’s open and shut, Sawyer. Natural causes. I don’t get why you’re still picking through that file.”

“This makes four of them now, Jim. Four!” Maggie held up the four fingers of one hand to demonstrate her point. “Come on, there’s something going on here. I know it.”

He sat back in his chair and appeared to study her for a moment, before shaking his head. “We can’t investigate a crime that doesn’t exist, Maggie. So why don’t you just drop it and focus on one of these other files where there is an actual crime, instead?” He motioned to a stack of identical folders on the corner of his desk, but she shook her head.

“Then why was that Fed at the crime scene— “ 

“It wasn’t a crime— ,” Jim tried to interject but Maggie carried on talking right over him.

“ — if there’s ‘nothing’ going on? Come on, Jim, if the Feds are involved, clearly they know something we don’t, and I hate it when they do that. They’re already a bunch of stuck up dicks, and here we are handing it to them on a plate and not even attempting an investigation of our own before they swoop in and claim it anyway.”

“You’re just annoyed you didn’t get the hot Fed’s number,” Jim smirked as he pushed the folder back across the desk towards her. “Look, if you really think something’s going on, then roll with it. If not, then let it drop. Okay?”

“I’m rolling with it. This is me rolling. You can call me butter, cause I’m on a roll.” Maggie grinned, her dimples proudly on display. “I’m gonna keep digging into this. There’s no way I’m gonna let that Fed scoop me… I mean the department.”

“You mean the Fed that’s currently talking to the Captain?” Jim turned back to his computer but his eyes kept darting back to Maggie in a not so subtle way.

“She’s what now?” Maggie’s head turned so quickly, it was surprising she didn’t get whiplash. There, in the captain’s office, smiling and making nice with him was the same Fed from the crime scene. The woman was fairly tall, redheaded, attractive, definitely not straight and definitely in Maggie’s house. Her finely honed detective senses went into overdrive at this invader’s presence. Further investigation was needed. “Son of a bitch. Uh… excuse me, Jim, I need to go and get my…” 

Without further explanation, she rose and made a circumspect path to stop near the captain’s office. The desk just outside was empty, and that proved the perfect place for Maggie to stop, crouch down behind cover, and tie her boot… repeatedly. Trip hazards were a real safety issue at work, and safety came first. Maggie was just able to sneak little glances over the desktop and make out parts of the conversation that carried out from inside the office.

“Of course, my department is always happy to cooperate with the FBI,” the Captain said.

“Thank you, Captain. I wish everyone was as cooperative as you,” the redhead was smiling when Maggie peered over the desk towards her.

Maggie bit down the reflexive ‘kiss ass’ that tried to make its way out of her throat. Something was definitely up. The Feds knew it and were here to take over the investigation, and her captain was going to just hand it to them on a silver platter… well, not on Maggie’s watch. She’d caught the first case, and it was her responsibility to make sure those families got justice, not some fancy suit who probably didn’t know DNA from RNA and couldn’t find her ass with both hands… even if it was a really nice ass.

Someone else moved into Maggie’s line of sight for a moment, blocking her view. It was Officer Trin, one of the uniforms who worked in her department. In Officer Trin’s hand was an evidence bag which was soon handed over to the Fed. Trin then made her exit from the office again, giving Maggie a strange look as she passed.

The Fed, meanwhile, looked down at the evidence bag in her hand, then nodded when the Captain said something that Maggie couldn’t quite work out, and held her hand for him to shake.

Maggie cursed quietly to herself. She hadn’t thought the captain was literally handing the case over to the Feds, but it looked like that was what he was doing. Her anger rising, Maggie was just about to stomp into the office when the conversation ended, and the Fed walked out of the room, grinning and holding the evidence like she’d just won a damn prize… smug asshole. Maggie rose, watching the redhead go. She had half a mind to read her captain the riot act, but she also knew that would most likely just lead to her getting pulled off the case and another little discussion about insubordination. Why was incompetence the key to leadership?

Maggie’s mind raced, looking for a viable option as inaction was not it. With a snap of her fingers, she took off in the direction Officer Trin had left to, making a sharp left and arriving at evidence lockup. There was Officer Trin, manning the system and keeping control of it all.

“Hey, Detective Sawyer, what do you got for me today?”

“I’m not making a delivery, Trin. I’ve got a question for you.” Maggie pressed her forearms to the counter and grinned. “You just handed over a piece of evidence to a Fed.”

Officer Trin didn’t even blink that it wasn’t a question. “Sure, Captain’s orders. What about it?”

“What did you give her?”

“Oh, not much, just a copy of the video game from one of those not cases. It was the Jones one. His family isn’t in town and hasn’t picked up his belongings yet. Why?”

Maggie’s fingers drummed on the counter. “So we still have the copy from the Summerland case?”

“Yeah, sure. I just logged it in like half an hour ago. What’s all this about?”

“It’s a race, and I’m gonna win. I need that video game. Log it out for me.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Trin’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Just curious, but why do you and that Fed need this?”

“I don’t know yet, but when I do, you’ll be the second one to find out.”


	2. Level 1 - Desert of the Lost Souls

As Alex’s vision finally cleared and her hearing returned to her in muffled fits and starts, her first thought was that someone had used a flash grenade. It was a very disorientating effect after all, and she’d trained with them enough times to know what it was like.

However, the first clue that it wasn’t a flash grenade was when she found herself standing, and not sitting, as she had been when she’d activated the VR.

The second, and perhaps the bigger clue, was that she was no longer in her apartment, sitting on her sofa in front of her laptop with the game fired up and ready as she put on a VR headset. She was instead standing in some kind of marketplace. Perhaps maybe a bazaar.

All around her, crowds hustled and bustled, moving from brightly colored wagons to equally as bright tents and stalls. Flags of every shape, size, and color fluttered in the light breeze and bright bunting was strung between pillars and posts, making for a most magical and colorful affair.

Amongst the crowd were various video game characters, and whilst Alex knew some by name, most she recognised but had no idea who they truly were. She definitely knew Ezio Auditore da Firenze in his white and red assassins robes, moving through the crowd in a classic attempt to ‘blend’, whilst behind him the Frye twins were bickering as usual, Jacob in his top hat, and Evie pointing her cane at him in a threatening manner as they argued. 

The two Italian plumber brothers, Mario and Luigi, were attempting to barter with a market stall vendor who had more than a passing resemblance to Nathan Drake, whilst Commander Cullen was talking to Yennefer of Vengerberg about… well, Alex wasn’t really sure what. Magic, most likely.

Something bumped into her, and she glanced down to see a tabby cat who looked up at her and miaowed as the name “Link” flashed above his head. 

“Hey there, little guy,” Alex grinned, crouching down to stroke him. He started to purr and rub himself around her legs, nudging her with his head to encourage more affection from her. Raiden, Liu Kang, Sonya, and Kitana walked past, followed closely by a purple dragon with yellow horns, belly, and wings and a bright yellow dragonfly whom she was pretty sure were Spyro and his friend Sparx.

Off to one side, a man who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Viking raider’s ship was saying to another man, “I used to be an adventurer like you. Until I took an arrow to the knee.” 

And over on the far side of what she had come to the conclusion must definitely be some sort of marketplace, she could see Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot playing soccer with… wait a minute, was that Pac-man they were using as a ball? 

This actually made her do a double take as she realised what she was seeing. And then she laughed, shaking her head. “This is so fucked up. Winn would love this place!”

Of course, there were plenty of ‘normal’ folks in the crowds as well, and whilst all of them had names that flashed up above their heads, only certain ones had a small avatar image of themselves to accompany the name. She was about to glance up to check if she also had one when a voice rang out from behind her.

“What the hell are you doing here?!”

Alex turned instinctively, even though she wasn’t actually sure that she was the one who was being spoken to just yet, and her eyes widened in surprise as she saw the crime scene detective striding purposefully towards her through the crowd. Pushing past a pair of gunslinging outlaws whom Alex recognised as John Marston and Arthur Morgan, the petite detective stopped a few feet from Alex and folded her arms, glaring up at her. 

“You were at the crime scene,” Alex noted as she looked down slightly to the shorter woman.

In response, the woman snorted and rolled her eyes. “Good work, Fed. Maybe you should be the detective. Detective Maggie Sawyer, NCPD, Science Division. And you are?”

Alex pointed to something over the Detective’s head. “I kind of already knew your name from that,” she said, referring to the nametag that hovered above the other woman, along with a small avatar. Then she pointed to the one that she assumed was above her own head. “Special Agent Alex Danvers, FBI.”

“Hmmm.” If the detective was at all impressed by the title or organization, she didn’t show it. “This case is in my jurisdiction, and I don’t remember inviting the feds into it. What do you think you’re doing?” 

“Same as you, most likely,” Alex folded her arms across her chest and drew herself up to her full height, not liking the detective’s tone one bit. “Investigating a series of suspicious deaths. Four of them, to be exact, all linked to this game.”

“Right, I’m investigating _my_ case. These all took place inside National City. Wait, do you have one of these across state lines?”

“I…” Alex faltered. She knew she should have gone with the Secret Service! It would have been much easier to explain. Hell, even admitting she worked for the DEO might be easier to explain at this very moment than having to talk her way out of the hole she’d dug for herself. Usually, people heard ‘FBI’ and backed down. Usually it was a free ticket to whatever Alex needed, no questions asked. “... uh, not yet, no. Not as far as I’m aware, anyway.”

“Huh.” Detective Sawyer thrust out her chin as she looked up at Alex. “So you’re a poacher. Isn’t that a federal crime? Maybe someone should call you on you.” Though her voice was accusatory, a little smile tugged at her lips, and Alex thought she saw a hint of dimples try to sneak out.

“Tell me, Detective Sawyer, do you believe these deaths are natural causes?” One of Alex’s eyebrows rose slowly in a challenge.

There was that snort again. “No, but I wouldn’t try to sell a freezer to eskimos either.”

“Which is why you’re here. Your department does, though. I bet you aren’t getting a lot of support from the brass on an investigation.”

“More like interference.”

"Exactly. Look, we're on the same side. I think these people were murdered, and I want to prove it. Want to help me?" Alex’s arms unfolded slowly in what she hoped was more of an inviting and less of a standoffish gesture.

“No,” Detective Sawyer said, but then a smile grew on the detective’s face, and deep dimples bloomed. Alex hoped her attraction wasn’t evident on her face. Then Detective Sawyer relaxed, arms hanging to match Alex’s stance, and said, “but you can help me.”

Alex couldn’t help a smile of her own as she nodded. “Good enough. So how far have you got with your investigation?”

“Ummm,” Maggie scratched her head and did a slow circle, looking around the area. “Well, I found that all of the victims worked at the same company as beta testers. The ME says natural causes, but they’re all young with no underlying health conditions. It doesn’t add up. I’ve been leaving messages for the CEO for days, but I haven’t heard back. I’m going to head down there in the morning if you want to join me and flex your federal muscles. I noticed you checked a copy of the game out of evidence, so I thought I’d do the same, and now here we are. Okay, I showed you mine. You show me yours.”

“Mine’s not a lot different from yours, truth be told,” Alex shrugged. “We got wind of the case, and I was sent to investigate. As soon as we figured out that all the victims were betas for Maximum Overdrive Games, I decided the next best place to start looking was this game. Four people died whilst playing it, which tells me there’s something about this game that is worth killing over. The question is, what?”

“I’ve looked around here a bit, and I haven’t found anything useful. It’s pretty fucking frustrating, actually. Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to have about five or six pat answers. It’s like having a perp across from you in questioning before he lawyers up.”

Alex considered this for a moment as a slow smile spread across her lips. “Who have you asked, so far? Are they still here?”

“Um, yeah,” Detective Sawyer scanned the crowd, and pointed out several people. “Pretty chick with the purple eyes, the two girls in the revealing outfits over there, the one with the blue mask and the one next to her in black, and the woman in the fancy coat. I even tried talking to the guy next to her in the top hat, but they just kept getting into the same argument.” 

Alex bit her lip for a moment as she tried very hard not to laugh. Wrangling her voice into something as close to calm and composed as possible, she asked, “You don’t play a lot of video games, do you, Detective?”

“What do I look like, a nerd? If I want to shoot something, I go to the firing range like an adult.” She narrowed her eyes. “Okay, what do you know here that I don’t?”

_Oh boy, where to start?_ Alex thought wryly. Then she pointed to each of the people that the Detective had pointed out. “Yennefer of Vengerberg. Sorceress, necromancer and love interest of the main character from the Witcher game series, based on a set of books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Then those two over there are Sonya and Kitana, kick ass women from the Mortal Kombat games. The woman in the fancy coat is Dame Evie Frye, a Master Assassin from the Brotherhood of Assassins. She’s based in Victorian London, and the guy with the top hat is her twin brother Sir Jacob Frye. Also a Master Assassin. The one thing all of these folks have in common is that they’re also NPCs. At least in this game. Which is why they only have a limited vocabulary.”

“NPCs,” Detective Sawyer repeated. “So they’re just data in the game? There’s no one playing them?”

“Exactly,” Alex nodded. “They’re Non-Player Characters.”

“I guess that makes sense. Frustrating, but it makes sense. I feel a little better about not being able to get any of the ladies to grab a drink with me… which is probably just as well with the assassin chick. Okay, so what else do you know about this place? Is there someone we should talk to, or are they all just decoration?”

“Let’s assume they’re going to be ninety-nine percent decoration,” Alex mused as she also looked about, though she did cast the Detective a few sideways glances every now and then. “Finding an actual player character could take too much time, so I think we need to start playing the game to see what it’s all about and see if we can find out anything that way. Usually, games start off with a prologue level, a sort of introduction to get the player used to the controls, provide tutorials, that sort of thing. My guess is this is the tutorial level before the actual game.”

“Okay, so what are we supposed to be learning here? There must be clues, and we’re missing them. There are always clues.”

Alex looked around again, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the market stalls around them. “There’s places to buy things. That must be a hint. I wonder if there’s a way to get to the inventory and see what we’ve got…” She began turning in circles and looking all around, up, down and in all directions. When there was nothing obvious in the immediate area, she then started to pat herself down instead, before rolling up her sleeves. “Aha! See? These are new.” 

She held out both exposed wrists to indicate the tattoos that now adorned her wrists - three small human figures on her left wrist and a collection of four symbols on her right, consisting of a small globe, an ‘i’ in a circle, a small scroll and a small backpack. 

“I’m going to guess that the globe is for a map of some kind,” she ran a finger over the globe tattoo as she was talking, then took a step back in surprise as a large hologram square appeared before her, seemingly from nowhere, with a map of what looked like the marketplace laid out on it. “Whoa. Okay now that is cool.”

“Freaky. How does this help us?”

“Not sure yet,” Alex admitted. “Okay, so next is the ‘i’…” she ran her finger over the next tattoo and the hologram of a map changed to a hologram revealing statistics of some kind instead.

Alex studied them for a moment, her head tilting slowly as she read, and then her eyes widened in surprise. “Hold on, I think these are mine. That must mean you have your own. See if you’ve got any of these symbols too?”

Maggie rolled up her sleeves to reveal symbols that matched Alex’s. “Yup, wonderful. I feel like I got roofied and woke up tattooed. At least I still have all my organs.” Following Alex’s lead, she pressed on the ‘i’ on her right wrist, and a list of statistics appeared.

There were seven categories listed in total, with a number beside each one. 

Glancing first at her own, Alex could see that she had been given: Strength 1, Agility 4, Speed 2, Perception 2, Charisma 1, Constitution 3, Ingenuity 4. 

The Charisma and Strength were slightly insulting, being so low, but she had to admit she kind of agreed with the rest.

Once she’d studied hers a little more, she then turned to compare them to the Detective’s.

Detective Sawyer had: Strength 1, Agility 3, Speed 3, Perception 4, Charisma 2, Constitution 1, Ingenuity 3.

So she exceeded Alex in some areas, but didn’t quite meet her in others. Between them, however, their stats weren’t entirely horrendous. 

Alex tapped on the scroll on her wrist next, which seemed to be a tutorial of sorts. It went through a long list of game mechanics. The three people-shaped symbols on their left wrists were for their lives, and they were limited to three each, but if they lost one, they went to the last checkpoint. There was a gong that would signal the completion of one level and the start of the next. Every player had special skills based on their real life skills. It would allow them access to special items, areas, or to create things… vague, but perhaps that would become clearer as they played. These skills could apparently be leveled up as they earned experience in the game. It was all rather standard stuff to Alex, but she noticed Maggie frowning next to her.

“Questions?” Alex asked.

“Jeez, nothing _but_. Special skills, save points, three lives…? I hope you understand this all better than I do.”

“Let’s just say I’ve played my fair share of video games in my time. Don’t worry, I’ll explain each thing as we get to it,” Alex shrugged, then pressed the final symbol, the backpack. This one brought up a grid with other symbols inside each square and was apparently the inventory. Alex looked at the four items in her inventory - a knife, a green bottle that was labelled ‘minor health potion’, a small brown pouch that said ‘200’ beneath it and an apple. Then she looked to Maggie, expecting the Detective to do the same with her own inventory.

Maggie peered up at Alex’s symbols for a moment before seeming to notice she was being watched. “Oh, me too? Um… here.” She pressed her symbol, and the resulting grid appeared with the same items inside. “Okay, so what is this, some kind of quest? Are we supposed to use the knife to cut the apple, get the seeds, plant them and then water it with the green stuff?”

Alex stared at her long and hard, waiting for the joke to be revealed. When it never came, she blinked. “You really don’t have a clue what’s going on, do you? This is your inventory. They’re the items you currently own.” To demonstrate her point, and also to satisfy her own curiosity at how it worked, she reached out a hand and touched the pouch of what she assumed was coins. Almost immediately the pouch disappeared from the hologram screen and an actual brown pouch appeared in her palm. She hefted it a little and heard coins jingling about inside.

“Okay, where the fuck did that come from?”

“Just there,” Alex pointed at the inventory. “You saw it, right? I selected it. When we gather or buy more stuff, there will be more things in here. Think of this as like a gigantic backpack for us to stash all our stuff in.”

“No, I saw that, but where is this backpack? You’re not wearing one, just a henley and cargo pants.” Maggie leaned in a bit closer. “What are those symbols on your shirt?”

Alex looked down at herself and then pulled her two-toned henley away where the symbols Maggie had indicated were. The shirt itself was light grey with dark grey sleeves. On the front of the shirt, just above where a breast pocket would be, was a patch with crossed pistols. On her upper sleeve was another patch, this one with the Staff of Hermes on it, the symbol of medicine.

“Are you a doctor or something?” Maggie asked.

“Amongst other things, yes. The choice of clothing was very minimal when I was creating my character. I don’t usually wear this sort of thing.” She glanced over at Maggie’s outfit, a pair of taupe slacks with a peach colored button down shirt. On the front of the shirt, it had a patch with the same cross pistols as Alex’s, and on her sleeve was a magnifying glass. “I assume that’s not what you were actually wearing either.”

Maggie glanced down at herself and chuckled. “No, and it’s probably just as well, otherwise, I’d be standing here in a pair of boxer briefs and a t-shirt that says, ‘Mmmm… boobies’.” Alex blinked at that piece of information and added it to the mental database she was quickly building on the likelihood of the detective’s sexual orientation, but before she could say anything about the t-shirt comment, Detective Sawyer continued speaking. “Okay, so we have virtual backpacks, and we have these special skills - whatever they are - which I guess will be useful. I have a question for you though.”

“Go ahead,” Alex nodded.

Detective Sawyer pointed off in the distance, across the crowd of people. “Why does that NPC have a little picture over their head?”

“Which one?” Alex turned to look in the direction Maggie was pointing, squinted past Mario and his brother and finally spotted who she was looking for. “Oh, because she’s not an NPC, that’s why. Player characters like us have an avatar over their heads. NPCs don’t.”

Detective Sawyer nodded. “So that’s another real person?”

Alex nodded as well, about to turn away when her own words finally dawned on her. “Wait, she’s a real person like us! You wanted someone to question, Detective? There you go.”

“She can really talk like us?”

“Only one way to find out,” Alex tucked the bag of coins into the pocket of her cargo pants and the bag vanished, reappearing in her inventory window which she quickly realised was still open. Pressing the backpack icon again to close it, she started off through the crowd towards the woman in the distance. 

By the time Alex had reached the woman, she was surprised to see Detective Sawyer - who she had left behind her when she took off through the crowd - was already standing by the other player character.

“I-what-how…?” Alex looked back the way she’d come, then back to Detective Sawyer again, more than a little confused. “How did you...?”

“Try to keep up,” Detective Sawyer said. “Agent Danvers, this is Frances Kincaide. Frances here is a beta tester for Maximum Overdrive Games.”

Alex decided it was better not to press some issues now and instead held her hand out to Frances. “Nice to meet you, Frances. I’m Special Agent Danvers of the FBI. Has Detective Sawyer explained the situation to you?”

“Um, no. She just introduced herself and asked me if I wanted to get a drink sometime.” The woman shrugged and smiled at Detective Sawyer. “Maybe.”

Alex cleared her throat and glared at Detective Sawyer. “Well, Detective, seeing as this is _your_ case, do you want to do the honors? I’d hate to tread on your toes with my big federal boots, after all.”

“Wow, those are pretty big,” Detective Sawyer said as she glanced at Alex’s feet. “Sure, stand back and learn, Fed. Frances, how long have you been in the game?”

“I just logged in, actually. Are you guys beta testers? Do we have actual cops and FBI agents beta testing?”

“Not beta testing. Do you know Sophie Summerland, Henry Jones, Elijah Nguyen, or Diego Flores?”

“Soph, Henry, Eli, and Diego?” Her gaze bounced back and forth between Alex and Detective Sawyer. “Yeah, sure, I know them. We all work together. Why? What did they do?”

Detective Sawyer looked over at Alex who nodded once. “They’re all dead.”

If Frances knew anything about their deaths, she was one hell of an actor. Her eyes bugged out, and she took two staggering steps back. “No way. We have monthly team meetings. I talked to them all online just over a week ago. What happened?”

“We were hoping you might be able to help us. The one thing they have in common, besides being beta testers for the same company, is that they all died,” Detective Sawyer paused briefly as Frances leaned in a bit closer, “while playing this game.”

Frances’ expression went from one of wide shock to relaxed and chuckling. “Okay, you guys almost got me. Eli, Soph, this is you guys, right? Do you ever get tired of the practical jokes?” She took a step closer to Detective Sawyer. “Eli, I swear to god, if this is you and you used this cute chick’s avatar to hit on me, I’m gonna spike your food with laxatives. I hope you enjoy working from the bathroom.”

“Um…” Detective Sawyer turned toward Alex. “I have been accused of many things by women, but being a man is not one of them. Any ideas?”

Alex just shook her head with a light shrug. 

“Right, this is my jurisdiction. Be careful what you wish for, Sawyer.” Just one corner of Detective Sawyer’s mouth turned up as she faced Frances again, and her eyes took on a sympathetic cast. “Look, I really am sorry, but I _am_ a cop, and she _is_ with the FBI. I wish we were spoofing you, but unfortunately, your friends really are dead. Whatever killed them, it had something to do with this game. Our job is to find that out and make sure that you’re not next.”

“Wait… This is for real?” The look of dismay had returned to Frances’ face, but this time, it was coupled with fear. “Why would anyone want to kill us? We’re not even supposed to be beta testing this game.”

“Wait, you’re not? Why do you say that?” Alex frowned. “Who is meant to be testing it then?”

Detective Sawyer rolled her eyes and sighed. “Oh, now you want multi-jurisdictional cooperation.” 

Frances either didn’t notice Detective Sawyer’s antics or ignored them and said, “I don’t know. They usually hype up new games. We’ll get image shots and even some early sketches during design. They like to test our reactions to see how the game will do with a broader audience. On this one though, it was crickets. No one heard anything until Eli… Eli,” she repeated his name, a name that now seemed to haunt her, before swallowing hard and continuing, “he found this game in one of the beta servers. He always does a search for his name to see if anyone has tagged him in a new game, and this one came up, but not really. The name Eli was in it, but it wasn’t meant for him. It was a character in the game or something. Anyway, it was new, and it was active, but we hadn’t heard anything about it. He sent word out to all of us, told us to get to work looking for bugs and have our reports by the next monthly meeting. Eli’s really dead?”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Detective Sawyer said as she reached out and squeezed Frances’ arm. They stayed like that for a moment, in a virtual world giving actual comfort, before Detective Sawyer caught Frances’ eye and said, “This is why we need your help. We want to find out who did this to your friends and keep it from happening to anyone else. Can you help us?”

“Any way I can, of course.” She wiped at her face, pushing away streaming tears. “Man, this is so realistic. You can even cry in here. Ugh, why am I still thinking about this stupid game?”

“Hey, there’s no right or wrong way to grieve,” Detective Sawyer said. “Be kind to yourself, but help us figure this out.” When she got a nod in response, Detective Sawyer continued. “You said the game was active when Eli found it. What does that mean?”

“Someone was already playing it. It wasn’t a beta any of us knew, but someone was logged in.”

“Maybe whoever designed it?” Detective Sawyer posed that as a question as she looked back at Alex.

“Do we even know who designed it?” Alex asked, looking between Detective Sawyer and Frances as she posed her own question back to them both. “And if it wasn’t ready, why was it on the beta servers?”

“We have teams of game designers, but we only communicate with them via email, and sometimes we buy games from smaller game designers. I have no idea who made this one.” Frances shrugged. “If it wasn’t ready for testing, it shouldn’t have been on the beta server. You only put it there so people can access it. We were just doing our job, you know?”

“No-one’s saying you weren’t,” Alex replied with a shake of her head. “We’re just trying to work out how four of your colleagues ended up dead whilst playing this game. Is there perhaps anything else they all had in common? Anything else that could link them?”

Frances seemed to be considering the question, but she shook her head slowly the whole time. “Look, one of the things our company does right is hire highly qualified and _diverse_ beta testers to try and appeal to a wider audience. Soph was like super athletic. She was always climbing a mountain or rafting white waters or something. Henry thought getting off the couch to open a new bag of Doritos was exercise. Diego was married, did the whole wine and cheese tasting thing with the Mrs, like super domestic. Eli, he was a player in every sense of the word. He worked hard and played harder. The day I started, Soph warned me about him. He tried to get into the pants of anything with a skirt… you know what I mean. Scotsmen in kilts had to watch themselves around him. We’re all just… different, you know?”

“So the place you work is the common denominator,” Detective Sawyer said. “Any reason anyone would want to hurt any of your friends?”

“Maybe someone Eli had slept with or the boyfriend or girlfriend of someone Eli had slept with. He came into the office with a shiner last year and told a story about having to make his way home in his boxer briefs when someone’s husband got back from their trip early. He laughed it off, and nothing seemed to come of it. That’s really the only thing that comes to mind. We’re video game geeks. We’re kind of boring.”

“Don’t let Winn hear you say that,” Alex smirked, momentarily forgetting herself. “He wears his geek with pride.”

“Who?” Detective Sawyer and Frances asked together.

“Oh, uh, my tech guy.” Alex pointed to one ear. “Usually the voice in my ear when I’m on missions and… anyway. You were saying?”

“Just that none of them would have made anyone kill them. Someone might have punched Eli in the face, but that’s it. This makes no sense.”

“Can you give us a minute?” Detective Sawyer said to Frances while stepping to the side and gesturing for Alex to follow.

With a brief flash of a smile towards Frances, Alex stepped off to the side, following Detective Sawyer’s lead until they were just out of earshot, though she kept her voice low anyway just to be safe. “What are you thinking?”

“About a Margarita when I get out of here. Interested?” Alex only blinked, mouth opening and closing once without words while Detective Sawyer continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “What if none of these kids were the target?”

Clearing her throat and forcing herself to resume her professionalism, Alex glanced back at Frances, then her gaze returned to Detective Sawyer again. “You think someone else was the target and they were just collateral? Wrong place, wrong time?”

“I don’t know for certain. We need a lot more evidence to make an educated guess, but that’s what my gut is telling me, and my gut never lies when it comes to crime and taco trucks. I think these folks just got caught up in someone else’s mess, but whose?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex shook her head. “The game wasn’t made public right? These geeks didn’t know about it until someone found it whilst looking for something else, so what if it was only ever meant for one person… the very first person who logged in and was already playing the game when this lot stumbled across it?”

“That makes logical sense. So if we can figure out who that person is, we can find the target which would let us come up with a list of suspects. Come on.” Detective Sawyer gestured with her head again. “Let’s go talk to Frances some more.” Together, they made their way back to the nervous young woman, and Detective Sawyer said, “Frances, you said you didn’t know who was already in the game when Eli found it. How would someone go about figuring out who they were?”

“The first tester that none of us knew?” Puffing up her cheeks, Frances let out a slow breath. “The company must have a record. Don’t you guys have a warrant for that kind of information or something?”

“Um… the warrant is in process. Judges, you know?” Detective Sawyer raised her brows at Alex. “Okay, so the company would know. Anyone in particular we should be asking?”

“If the company’s president, Mr. Crump, Ronald Crump, doesn’t know, then no one would. Maybe talk to him?”

“I’ve left messages for him. He hasn’t responded,” Detective Sawyer said. “This, though, changes things.”

“Frances, are you able to get us a list of everyone who has logged in to play this game?” Alex asked thoughtfully. “When people log in to the server, they must leave an IP address as a signature - a digital footprint - to show they were there. If you can get us that list of footprints, I can have my tech guy work through it to find the identity of our mystery player. It might help speed things up?” She looked to Maggie as she said this last part, with a slight raise of one eyebrow.

“I’m sure I can do that. Just let me… Um… let me… huh.”

“What’s wrong?” Detective Sawyer asked.

“Just trying to figure out how to log out of the game. It’s usually simple even in VR platforms, but I can’t seem to disconnect from this reality. What’s going on?”

“You’re stuck here?” Maggie turned to Alex, wide eyed. “People get stuck here? We’re people.”

“Okay, let’s not panic. I’m sure it’s pretty straightforward once you know how,” Alex examined the symbols on both her wrists as she spoke, then selected the ‘i’ in a circle to bring up her stats. “I’m sure there’s an options menu around here somewhere. Maybe it’s just been hidden by mistake. Something the betas would pick up on during testing.” Even as she spoke, she was using one hand to scroll through the list of information that had come up in the hologram, all tailored specifically to her and her character. But the more she scrolled, the less she was seeing anything even remotely like an options menu. “Uh… it’s probably… um…” Pressing the symbol on her wrist again to get rid of the screen, she then began to pat herself down, “must be something around here somewhere…”

“This place is like a roach motel,” Detective Sawyer said gravely. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”

“Maybe it’s not a button or a menu so much as a particular phrase?” Alex suggested. “Like, I dunno, ‘end simulation’ or something?”

The three of them looked around, but the game never faltered.

“Yeah, we’re screwed,” Detective Sawyer said. “I don’t know about either of you, but I live alone, and no one is coming to check on me until my partner notices I don’t show up at work in two days. So somehow, we need to figure out how to turn this off if no one is going to do it for us.”

“I live with my cats,” Frances said. “Oh, my God, who will take care of my cats?”

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Alex flashed them both a reassuring smile. “Relax, my sister is forever dropping in on my place unannounced. As soon as she finds me, she’ll alert the relevant folks, then when they pull me from the game I’ll make sure they know to pull you guys out too. Until then, we just have to sit tight and— wait, what day is it today?”

“Tuesday,” Detective Sawyer said. “Why?”

“Kara’s going to be with Lena on one of their ‘date nights that’s not a date night’. Which means she won’t be dropping by my place until sister night which is… fuck it, we’re screwed.” Alex paced away a few steps, her hands running through her hair in frustration, before she took a deep breath, her hands dropped back to her sides again and she rejoined them. “Okay, so we can’t leave this part, but this is just the prologue, right? Some games won’t let you exit until you’ve reached a save point, so all we have to do is get to the first checkpoint, save point, whatever, and then we should be able to leave after that.”

“This is all Greek to me, and that’s not one of the languages I speak,” Detective Sawyer said. “Did you understand that?”

“I did,” Frances replied. “It’s possible. It’s not how VR games are generally set up, and this would be a flaw we’d address in testing, but it’s possible we just need to reach the first checkpoint. That might give us options to log off after it saves our progress.”

“We don’t know for definite that it will, though,” Alex admitted, as she bit her lip for a moment, thinking things through. “Which is why I should go on ahead. You two stay here and if anyone else logs into the game, you can fill them in on the situation. As soon as I’ve reached the checkpoint and logged off, I’ll come and get you both out.”

“Hold on, G.I. Jane. This is still my case. You get to be on babysitting duty while I go look for this check thingy for the log.”

Alex folded her arms across her chest and turned to Maggie. “I’ll stay here and let you go, on one condition. If you can tell me what an AoE is.”

“I… It’s… Um… Any chance this is a multiple choice test?”

“You’re a newbie,” Alex shook her head. “No offence, but you won’t last five seconds out there on your own. I know games. Alright, I don’t know this one, but I know games in general. I’ve played my fair share of them, and I also have real world experience of certain situations as well.”

“You’re not the only one with real world experience, and this is still my case. If you’re going, I’m going too.”

Alex opened her mouth to argue, then let out a frustrated sigh instead. “Alright, fine! But you’d better keep up. I hate it when I get a newbie on my team.” She turned to Frances. “You do need to stay here though. That’s not negotiable. We need you to keep an eye out for anyone else who may log in to the game. You need to warn them, keep them all together here so that we can pull them out easier. People have died playing this game. Let’s try and stop that from happening to anyone else.” Finally, she pulled up her inventory again, then grimaced. “Frances, do any of these stalls actually sell stuff? We won’t get very far on these basics.”

“Yeah, sure. See that coin icon hovering up there?” Frances pointed toward a gold coin icon several rows of tables over and up. “You can buy merch there. So I should just… hang tight?”

“Yah, just… talk to Sonic or something. We’ll figure this out in no time and get you out of here kid.” Detective Sawyer gently slapped the back of her hand against Alex’s forearm. “Let’s go.” 

“Hold on, wait!” Frances took several steps to rejoin them. “If you didn’t read the documentation, do you even know what your classes and special skills are?”

“Do we?” Detective Sawyer asked Alex.

“I’m going to guess medic?” Alex gestured to her arm patch. “And… some sort of weapons class?” She motioned to the patch on her chest.

“Right on both counts,” Frances said and then gestured at Detective Sawyer. “You’re also combat but with detective as your subclass. You two make a decent little group. You’re both good at combat, you can improve healing potions,” Frances gestured at Alex and then Detective Sawyer, “and you can find hidden objects.”

“Huh,” Alex nodded as she glanced at Detective Sawyer. “Alright then, I guess you are coming with me after all. Though we should stock up on some better weapons first. I’m not taking any chances. The fact that we even have weapon classes at all is a bad sign.”

“Fine, let’s go to the shiny coin and buy stuff. I’ll let you lead the way, Fed, since I’m just a newbie.”

Choosing not to respond to this particular comment, Alex led the way over to the stall where two signs sat on the table. ‘Buy’ and ‘Sell’. 

“Okay, let’s go with…” Alex reached out and touched ‘Buy’. Another hologram screen appeared before her listing a whole host of items as the stall trader reeled off a limited set of phrases that repeated more than once. Alex pointed to him as she glanced briefly at Detective Sawyer. “NPC.” Then she went back to scrolling through the list until she found something that caught her eye. Touching the name in the list, Alex blinked in surprise when a silver handgun with a black grip appeared on the stall before her. The name tag above it read ‘Smith and Wesson Model 5906’ and it had a price tag of $150. Glancing back up at the list again, Alex saw to her dismay that the rifles and other larger guns were grayed out with a small padlock symbol beside them. This handgun was as close as she was going to get, at the moment, to some sort of firearm. Her mind made up, she touched the ‘purchase’ button, and the gun vanished from the stall, appearing in her hand. A small ‘15’ on the grip confused her for a moment until she unloaded the magazine and counted fifteen rounds. Sliding the magazine back in and then tucking the gun into the waistband of her cargo pants, she quickly purchased two clips of ammo at $15 each and with her final $20 she grabbed another two health tonics as well. Then she stepped back from the stall and motioned for Detective Sawyer to take her turn.

Detective Sawyer pressed the ‘buy’ option then stood back with her hands on her hips. “I want a gun. Do I want a gun? I feel like I want a gun.” Detective Sawyer glanced at Alex. “I feel naked without a gun.”

“You need a gun,” Alex agreed. “But the choices are limited. We need more coins to get the better stuff.”

“Right, so I guess I’ll take this pistol and an extra clip.” Detective Sawyer made two selections and then stared up at the screen. “I’ve got $20 left. Any suggestions?”

“Health. Go for health,” Alex nodded as she peered at the list. “Or failing that, some food. But… hey some of your food options are grayed out. What gives?”

Detective Sawyer shook her head. “No, the food options are all there. It’s just dead animal that’s grayed out. I’m fine with that.”

Alex blinked, studying the Detective up and down for a moment. “You’re a vegetarian?”

“Vegan, yeah. So do I get those potion thingies you got or some fruit? Help your girl out here, Fed.”

Alex stepped up to the stall again and thought for a moment. “Get two health tonics. Chances are we’ll find food along the way, but health tonics might be harder to come by.”

Detective Sawyer selected two health tonics with her final $20. “Okay, now I’m broke but armed. Why does virtual reality feel more like actual reality? What now?”

“Now,” Alex pressed the globe icon on her wrist again to call up their map. “We work out where we need to go next.” She studied the map for a moment then pointed. “Alright, we’re here, and it looks like we need to go there,” her finger moved to indicate the two different points on opposite sides of the map. “So I think we need to head East of Eli.”

“Of what?”

“There's a town called Eli. Must have been what our victim Eli pulled up when he was doing his search. If we head east of that, we'll be on the right track.” Alex glanced up and saw a pathway just off to their left that led away from the marketplace. A signpost with an arrow pointed down the path and the name “Eli” was clearly visible. “Go ahead Detective. Lead the way.”

Detective Sawyer said, “Try and keep up,” and then stepped out into the bustle of the crowd and disappeared.

“Shit,” Alex grumbled, realising her mistake too late. “Alright, point taken Detective! Don’t wander too far, you’re still a newbie remember?”

<><>

Maggie stood by the gateway marking the exit from the marketplace. Though they’d left at the same time, it was nearing on a minute before she saw that familiar red bob break free of the crowd. Whistling and grinning, she stared down at her wrist, where a watch would be if she had one, and tapped her foot. When Agent Danvers arrived, she looked up. “Hey, nice of you to join me. I was starting to wonder if you’d decided to just stay here.”

“Funny,” Agent Danvers grumbled. “You’re only one level ahead of me in Speed. I’ll catch you up soon enough. Though I wouldn’t advise rushing too far ahead. We still don’t know what this place has in store for us. Plus, folks who rush through levels usually miss all the important stuff.”

“Right, if they’re not a detective.” Maggie winked and stepped through the gateway to the sound of a gong. “What the hell was that?”

“Checkpoint,” Agent Danvers replied as she stepped past Maggie. “It was explained in the tutorial.”

“Right. I was testing you. You passed.” 

In front of them was a vast wasteland for as far as the eye could see. The sun beat down on mile after mile of golden sand. In the distance, a buzzard circled, a foreboding omen of what awaited them. Not a building, an oasis, or even a tree stood out to mark some change in the landscape.

“Okay, this looks inviting. Where do we go from here?”

“I think we should head back to the market and get some water,” Agent Danvers turned back the way they’d come, then visibly deflated. “Fuck. Probably should have seen this coming.”

“Seen what coming?” Maggie turned back to the marketplace, only to find that it was gone. Behind them was just more desert. “Oh, seen that coming. Damn, this place is one big screw and stingy with the lube. Okay, so we wanted to go east, right?” Maggie glanced at the sun and then turned until her back was to it. “This way is East.”

Agent Danvers didn’t need telling twice, and set off at a brisk walk. “Let’s go. The sooner we get to the end of this level, the sooner we can log off and save everyone.”

However, this proved easier said than done. Though they continued on a steady path, their surroundings never changed. They might as well have been walking on a treadmill for all the progress they made. Nothing seemed to change for over an hour until Maggie held out an arm in front of Agent Danvers. “Do you see that?”

“See what?” The Agent sighed, her voice carrying a very clear tone of both boredom and frustration.

“That bush is glowing. I’m gonna investigate.”

“What bush?” Agent Danvers raised an eyebrow. “Wait, this isn’t some kind of innuendo thing, is it?”

Maggie grinned back at the agent and shook her head. “No, but I’ll keep that in mind. This bush, here.” Maggie stepped up to a bush that looked like any other except for a red glow emitting from inside of it. “I think there’s something in here, and it’s glowing red.”

Agent Danvers stepped a little closer, then frowned. “It’s red? Are you sure? It looks like a normal, non glowing bush to me.”

“I can’t believe you can’t see this.” Maggie looked back over her shoulder at Agent Danvers. “It’s as clear as the nose on— Fuck!” A sharp pain ran from Maggie’s hand all the way up her arm, she yanked her hand back. “Madre de Dios! What was that?”

Agent Danvers had her pistol in hand and aimed at the bush as she stepped closer. “Your hand? Let me see?”

Fire, it felt like fire running all the way up her arm and across her chest. Maggie grabbed her chest as she held her hand out to Agent Danvers. “It really hurts. It feels like my blood is burning.”

“Sounds like poison,” Agent Danvers stashed her gun quickly and grabbed Maggie’s hand. “Snake bite. Shit. You need to get one of your health tonics, now!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maggie’s ears were ringing, and she blinked to try and bring the image of Agent Danvers into focus. “How do I do that?”

“Hold on,” Agent Danvers was calling up her own inventory. She grabbed a health tonic and the bottle appeared in her hand. Her eyes turned up briefly and she blinked in surprise. “Well, that’s new. You’re on five percent health.” Agent Danvers then held out the tonic. “Sorry, here. Take this, quickly.”

Maggie reached out, but her vision blurred around the edges, and as her legs gave way, she fell onto her back, gasping and struggling to breathe. Around what sounded like gongs in her ears she could hear Agent Danvers calling her, but it sounded like it came from a long, long way away. Then everything went black. The pain ended, thankfully, as she was surrounded in a void. The absolute lack of everything was even worse. Was she there for seconds or hours? Maggie had no clue, but with a huge gasp, she sat up, clutching her chest as she stared at a wide-eyed Agent Danvers.

“What the fuck just happened?” Maggie asked.

Agent Danvers sat back on her haunches and let out a breath, as she ran one hand through her hair. “I think you just lost your first life.” She pointed to Maggie’s wrist. Maggie glanced down as well and then gasped in surprise. Where she had three little human symbols before, she still had them now, but one of them had an angry blood red cross over it, as if someone had taken a sharp blade and carved a cross into her very skin.

Slowly raising her gaze from her wrist to meet Agent Danver’s, Maggie said, “That hurt. That hurt a fuckload. I thought I was dying. If this is just a game, why did it feel that way?”

“I… uh… “ Agent Danvers shook her head then shrugged. “I have to admit this place is very realistic.”

“A bit too realistic.” When Agent Danvers stood and held down a hand to her, Maggie took it and allowed herself to be hauled to her feet. “Thanks.” She glanced down at her wrist again and rubbed the rapidly fading ache in her chest. “So I’ve got a theory, but it’s kind of crazy.”

“We’re literally trapped inside a video game, and you’re worried about crazy?” Agent Danvers raised one eyebrow. 

“It’s kind of along those lines. What if I felt like I was dying because the game did something to me physically, to my body, when I died here? What if… I feel dumb actually saying this… What if the game gives you three lives, and then it kills you? It really kills you. That’s nuts, right? Tell me that’s nuts.”

“That’s…“ Agent Danvers ran a hand through her hair, as she considered for a moment, before nodding. “Kind of what I was thinking too. I mean, how else do four very different and diverse people all die of so called ‘natural causes’ whilst playing the same video game?”

“So we’re literally playing for our lives here?” Maggie walked a large circle, hand on her hips as she took several cleansing breaths. It didn’t work, though. The panic was still there. Instead of giving in to it, she looked back at Agent Danvers again and forced a grin onto her face. No reason to spread the fear. “I sure hope you’re right about the exit at the end of the level.”

“So am I,” Agent Danvers nodded in agreement. “So am I. Speaking of, how the hell are we getting out of this neverending nightmare we’re in right now? There’s got to be some way to break this cycle?”

“I’d advise against touching anything glowing red. That’s not the answer.”

“Easier said than done when I literally can’t see anything glowing in any color, let alone red.”

“This place is fucked up.” As the sky began to dim, Maggie looked up sharply. The sun was setting, very suddenly, a veritable explosion of reds and oranges covering the horizon. It would have been lovely under other circumstances, like if she out with a girl and not stuck in a killer machine… with a girl… as they tried to fight for their lives and get justice for those who had already died here. She pointed to the disappearing ball of fire. “That seems sudden.”

Agent Danvers shook her head. “This is a video game. Time moves differently in video games. It’s not uncommon for a game day to last anything from ten minutes to twenty, sometimes thirty. And sometimes just five. Although it’s going to get very dark now without any sources of light, which is going to make it even harder to see dangers, so watch your step.”

As if to prove her point, the moon began to glow faintly in the sky. Clouds had appeared, partially obscuring the orb as they slowly drifted across the sky from some unfelt breeze. Maggie shivered, as the temperature seemed to drop from a blazing heat to an unpleasant chill.

“Great, now it’s cold. This place really is a desert.” She turned, trying to reorient herself and figure out which was east so they could keep traveling forward… if forward even existed. A good sense of direction was one of her strengths, and she stopped when she _felt_ like she was facing the right way, though she really had no idea. Everything was a mess. “Maybe this game could be a bit less realistic.”

“I knew I should have bought that leather jacket from the store,” Agent Danvers grumbled as she wrapped her arms about herself and began to rub her upper arms a little. “Okay, let’s go before anything else decides to screw us over.” She jogged a little to fall into step beside Maggie, then looked all around. “When I find the person who built this game…”

As the clouds slid fully past the moon, the light picked up a little bit. Then a glow appeared on the ground in front of them, but at a slight angle. Maggie slowed down then stopped and held out an arm in front of Agent Danvers, as she stared at the eerie blue glow. It was just one of many, many sets of footprints heading off in one direction.

“What is it?” Agent Danvers was on full alert in an instant, a hand reaching for her holster at her side even though she wasn’t wearing her gun, and it was still in her inventory.

“I’m just going to assume you can’t see the glowing footprints. They lead off that way.” Maggie pointed to her left at about a twenty degree angle from where they were facing. “Glowing is bad, right?”

“Are they red?” Agent Danvers asked cautiously.

“Blue.” Maggie raised her brows and looked back at the agent. “Why, does that matter?”

“In some games, it does,” Agent Danvers nodded. “Okay so we know red is dead. Blue could be… clue?”

“Sure, let’s go with that. So we do what, follow them?”

“Seeing as you’re the only one who can see them, I’m following you,” Agent Danvers replied as she pressed a button on her wrist and called up her inventory. “But I’m taking no chances.” She selected her handgun and after touching it in the hologram window, it appeared in her hand. “Alright, lead on, Detective.”

So Maggie did, she walked forward, carefully avoiding stepping on the actual glowing spots… fool her once, shame on you but fool her twice… and instructing Agent Danvers to literally follow in her footsteps. They hadn’t gone very far when the light from above seemed to diminish and with it, the glowing prints faded away. She stopped and looked up to see the clouds were again covering the moon.

“Oh, I get it.”

“I’m glad someone does,” Agent Danvers grumbled. “I’m literally in the dark, here.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.” Maggie pointed up toward the cloud covered moon. “The prints only glow when the moon isn’t obscured. I can’t see them now.”

“Great. And who knows how long before it’ll come back out again. Did you see which way they went?”

“Yeah, that way. They were just—” The light picked up again and so did the glow. However, the prints were now several feet to their right and heading off in a slightly different direction. “I call bullshit.”

“What? What’s going on? The moon’s out so they should be back, right?” Agent Danvers asked, confusion clear on her face.

“Yeah, but they moved.” Maggie walked over to the new path and pointed in the direction the glowing prints were headed. “I swear, they fucking moved, Danvers.”

“Okay, so let's follow them and see where they lead this time, I guess?” Agent Danvers pointed in the same direction Maggie was pointing in. “So this way? I don’t get it, but it’s a video game and I haven’t learned all the rules yet.”

“Yeah, this way.” Maggie started forward, a bit mopish. “I hate stupid video games with stupid rules that _fucking_ kill you.” They made a bit of headway this time, but before they had reached wherever the footprints were leading them to, the clouds covered the moon again, and the prints disappeared. “I hate fucking clouds too. The trail is gone.”

“Okay,” Agent Danvers tilted her head back to stare at the moon for a moment, then nodded. “Now I get it. I think there’s a time limit and you have to get to the end of the trail before the timer runs out, otherwise the path resets itself.” She looked back at Maggie and shrugged. “Maybe?”

“That’s a thing?”

“It’s a video game. Literally anything is possible in video games.”

“Okay, so when the prints come back we run for it?”

“You run, Speedy,” Agent Danvers pointed first to Maggie, then to herself. “I try and keep up. Try being the operative word there, though.”

As the cloud cover drifted away again, the glowing prints reappeared. Grinning back over her shoulder, Maggie said, “See you at the finish line, Danvers.” Then she took off toward the new trail that had appeared to her left.

Maggie was making good time, only occasionally glancing back at the agent who lagged behind. Despite the situation, there was something freeing in this moment. If she hadn’t needed to watch the prints before her, Maggie could have thrown back her head and enjoyed at least this part of the experience.

It was a good thing she hadn’t because another glow appeared in her path. “Red,” she said even as she hurdled and cleared the dangerously glowing area. However, even as she landed, another thought occurred to her, and she skidded to a stop and spun. “Red!” 

Maggie watched Agent Danvers drawing closer, a look of confusion on the agent's face. It was clear Agent Danvers wouldn’t stop in time, wasn’t even trying, so Maggie did the first thing that came to mind. She took three quick steps and jumped over the red glow and directly into the agent. They fell in a tangle of limbs, both cursing and groaning as they hit the sand and rolled three times before they stopped, Maggie lying on top of the agent.

Pushing up to rest on her forearms to take some weight off the body below her - though she was painfully aware of the breasts pushing against hers - she waited until she had eye contact and said, “I said, red.”

“My name’s Alex,” the Agent replied, a little breathless. “But if you want to call me Red, I guess I can live with that.”

“I mean, it’s a cute nickname but…” Maggie shook her head. “No, I was trying to tell you there was a red glow in your path. That’s why I jumped. Didn’t you see me?”

“I was too busy looking where I was going. Until you tackled me. I can’t see the glows, remember?”

“That’s why I stopped but... Fuck, how are we going to do this if you can’t see the danger signs?”

“Could we maybe talk about this when I’m not pinned underneath you?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I just…” Maggie pushed herself upright, trying to ignore the way her body slid along Agent Danver’s in the process and the tiny embers now burning in her gut at the experience. She’d had to tackle quite a few suspects in her time in the force, but this, by far, was the best experience of that ilk. She held out a hand, this time being the one to haul the other woman upright. “I apologize for that. I didn’t know how else to stop you.”

“I…” Agent Danvers started and then stopped, a light blush creeping across her cheeks. “Yeah, thanks. So I guess we need to work out how to do this now. Because I’m at a serious disadvantage here, both in speed and… _special vision_ , or whatever it is. I don’t like it.”

“Maybe we should try and stay side by side. Let’s make sure I can’t go faster than you. That way you can hear me tell you to jump or swerve or whatever.”

“You’re a level ahead of me on speed, so unless you slow down, I’ll never be able to keep up,” Agent Danvers shook her head.

“Well, we could,” Maggie ducked her head before looking up at the agent again, “hold hands. Just to make sure I don’t lose you,” she hurriedly added, glad the dim light covered any slight blush that might have risen (and the stupid game was probably realistic enough to make sure it did).

“First things first, I think we should address that,” Agent Danvers pointed to the health bar over Maggie’s head. “Then we can discuss hand holding after. Though for the record, it might be the only way we get out of this damned place.”

“Address my—” Maggie stared up at the bar above her head which was now less than full. “How did that happen?” She looked over at the agent whose bar wasn’t even visible. “Are you hurt? I can’t tell.”

“I don’t think so,” the Agent shook her head. “Hold on, wasn’t there a button or something for this?” She scrolled through the symbols on her wrist until she found the one that brought up her stats. “Health: 100%. Nope, looks like I’m good. It was just you who took the hit for some reason. Lets see your stats quickly?”

“Could you maybe translate that into English or Spanish for me? I’m bilingual, but I don’t speak nerd.”

“Never mind. Look, you need to use a health refill.”

“A what?”

Agent Danvers let out a sigh. “Have you ever played a video game before? Open your inventory. The little backpack on your wrist.” 

Maggie did so, staring at the screen of objects in her possession, though they were few and far between. “So that little potion thing?” At Agent Danvers’ nod, she touched it, and it appeared in her hand. “Okay, so what do I do with it?”

“I… huh. Um, usually in a game you just press a button and it does it’s thing. Does it say anything on it?”

Maggie turned the bottle over in her hand. “ _Drink me_? Oh well, fuck it. What’s the worst that could—” 

“If you want to save your remaining two lives,” Agent Danvers interrupted. “Do **not** finish that sentence.”

With a roll of her eyes, Maggie raised the small bottle to her lips. After a moment it vanished. “Hey, that does feel better.” she glanced up to see her health bar refilled before it blinked out of sight.

Agent Danvers shook her head as she opened her own inventory again. “You really need to level up. Look, it’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.” She took another of the small bottles from her own inventory then held it out for Maggie. There was a long pause as the Agent appeared to be waiting for something, then she sighed. “That… that was a video game reference. You didn't get it, did you.”

“I have no idea what you're on about,” Maggie took the bottle and then looked between it and the Agent for a moment. “Thanks. What do I do with it now?”

The Agent’s groan of frustration was impossible to miss. “This is going to be a long game.”

Once Agent Danvers had shown Maggie how to put an object into her inventory, they stood side by side, Maggie watching the sky for the first hint of the moon’s return. When the clouds began to slide clear of one edge of the moon, Maggie held out her hand to the agent. “You ready to give this a shot?”

“As I’ll ever be,” the Agent nodded, sliding her hand into Maggie’s and holding on firmly.

Maggie flexed her fingers around Agent Danver’s palm, fidgeting slightly, but as the light picked up, she held on tightly. It took just a second or two to locate the glowing footprints, now at a direct right angle to their current direction, and she gave the other woman’s hand a tug. “This way.” Then she took a few steps that turned into a loping run. If she pushed too hard, Agent Danvers would fall behind, but the tug on her hand would remind Maggie to take it down a notch. The process seemed fairly successful, but the real test came as a red glow appeared ahead of them on the path. “I see red.”

“We jumping or swerving?” Agent Danvers replied immediately, her hand tensing in Maggie’s as she prepared to do whatever she was told in order to avoid the danger.

“Jump on my mark.” They raced ever closer, and Maggie raised her left hand and then thrust it down, yelling, “Jump!”. Thankfully, the agent had good reflexes and agility as they cleared the red area and both landed on their feet, barely breaking stride. “Woo Hoo!”

“How much further?” Agent Danvers asked after a few more moments of silent, rapid running as she did her best to keep up with the much faster detective.

“You’re asking me?” Maggie chuckled, but then she pointed ahead of them. “Rocks ahead. Those are new.”

Agent Danvers glanced up. “The moon’s fading. We need to hurry!”

“Can _you_ run faster?”

Agent Danvers didn’t answer verbally. Instead she ducked her head and her long legs stretched out even further as she pushed herself harder and faster. 

They crossed several feet of desert, closing quickly on the rocks, and Maggie squeezed Agent Danvers’ hand as she slowed. The pile of rocks was an unimpressive collection of some as small as a fist and a few that stood perhaps a foot high with many sizes in between, Maggie slowed and then stopped, taking the agent with her. “The footprints stop here.”

“Thank… fuck…” Agent Danvers gasped, bent double as she tried to catch her breath. “Don’t make us run that fast again… please?” After a few more breaths, she added, “I thought I was in top form, but now I’m having doubts.”

“Maybe someone needs to hit the gym.” Maggie smirked back at the agent who didn’t even look up, seeming to only have eyes for the ground and her gasping breaths. “So, what now?” Maggie poked out with one foot, gently shoving one of the rocks which shifted at her attention. “Is this really our goal? Talk about anticlimactic.”

Agent Danvers took one last, long, deep breath in then stood up and exhaled slowly as she started to walk a slow circuit round the rocks. “We were brought here for a reason. Maybe there’s a clue to lead us to the way out?”

“Okay, so the only difference from the miles and miles of sand is a bunch of rocks. They’ve got to be the clue, right?” Maggie walked among the rocks, and then a glint from her periphery caught her eye. She turned to see a faint blue glow coming from underneath one of the mid-sized rocks. “Hold on, I’ve got something.”

“Hang on, what color is it?” Agent Danvers came over, her pistol once again in hand. “Red is dead, remember? You can’t afford to meet any more snakes.”

“That’s not something I’m likely to forget. Dying hurts.” She glanced back at Agent Danvers. “Zero stars given. I do not recommend.” As she crouched down in front of the stone in question, she added, “It’s faint, like whatever is glowing is under it, but it’s blue. Blue is a clue, right?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” Agent Danvers nodded, though she brought her gun up in front of herself in a two handed grip aimed at the rock… just in case.

“Okay, I’m flipping this one over. Feel free to do something heroic if it looks like something is going to kill me.” She stood and used her boot to tip the rock over before jumping back. However, nothing popped out. The blue glow became brighter as a lever, buried in a small channel in the sand, became apparent. “So… now what?”

Agent Danvers lowered her weapon and looked around for a moment, then shrugged. “Use the lever, I guess. Maybe there’s a secret passageway that it opens to get us out of here.”

“I like the sound of that. Okay, here goes nothing.” 

Maggie pushed the lever. After two or three seconds, nothing had happened, and she turned to Agent Danvers - wishing she hadn’t already made her anticlimactic remark. Before she could say anything else, however, there was a rumble, and then the sand beneath their feet shifted and began to drop out. They were both sucked down into a veritable whirlpool of sand. The last thing Maggie saw was Agent Danvers sunk up to her chest and disappearing fast. Maggie reached out to the agent who did the same, but before their hands could connect, Maggie was dragged under the sand. Everything went black, and then she was buried, scrambling for purchase, and falling, falling, falling into the unknown.


	3. Level 2 - Freezeezy Peak

Alex picked herself up, dusted herself down and did a quick once over to check for serious injuries. Tapping the ‘i’ symbol on her wrist, she could see that her health bar was still full, surprising given the fall they’d just taken, but these were video game rules, after all. She was in some kind of cave - an ice cavern of sorts, from the looks of things. The walls were semi-opaque, great sheets of ice surrounding her. It was like being inside an iceberg. Even the floor was frozen over, though as she tried to slide her foot across it, she found she still had solid footing. 

Turning slowly on the spot to further examine the cavern, she also saw the Detective sprawled on the ground. Rushing over quickly, she dropped to her knees and turned the other woman over so that she was lying on her back. “Hey, Detective? Detective! Come on, wake up. Come on!” 

Detective Sawyer’s eyes opened, and she groaned slightly. “There was no red.”

“I’m not sure there was meant to be. That was apparently the doorway into this place,” Alex sat back on her haunches then ran a hand through her hair. Then stood up slowly after a moment.

“Yeah? Well, I want to speak to management,” the detective said as she rose and brushed off sand, sputtering and spitting as she wiped off her face. “This place is not up to code.”

“You do that a lot,” Alex said. At the detective’s curious look, she said, “You make jokes. You make jokes a lot.”

“Yeah? Well, it’s part of my charm.” Then she smiled up at Alex, a dimple appearing in each cheek while her eyes sparkled with mischief. “You don’t find me charming?”

Responding in the affirmative was on the tip of Alex’s tongue, but instead she ignored the question as she gestured around the area. “It looks like we’ve fallen into some kind of ice cave. Maybe there’s an exit out of here now that—”

Alex had only taken three steps forward when a gong rang. Instinctively, she reached for her side arm and spun before realizing her weapon wasn’t there. She managed to catch sight of the detective reaching across her body to the left of her torso, no doubt going for a side draw where her service revolver usually hung. They looked around for several tense seconds, but the echoing gong subsided, and nothing else came of it.

“Level change,” Alex said. “I guess this is level… two?”

“So where’s the fucking exit?”

“Working on it,” Alex muttered as she called up each of the holographic menus in turn, scrolling through each of them, and then groaning. “Okay, do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“There’s good news in this place?” Detective Sawyer snorted. “Just give it to me straight, Doc. What’s the problem now?”

“Well, the good news is you’re stuck with me,” Alex flashed a quick grin in the Detective’s direction before continuing on quickly. “The bad news is you’re stuck. We both are. There’s still no exit or way out of the game.”

“So we’re just…” Hands on her hips, Detective Sawyer turned her back. It was several moments of silence before she turned again with a little grin on her face. “Well, at least the good news is pretty good. Okay, so what now? We go forward, and that’s… which way?”

“We play the game as it’s meant to be played until we reach the end,” Alex suggested as she began to pace the chamber, one hand to the wall, searching for any sort of exit. After a moment she paused, then backtracked, before turning to smile back at Detective Sawyer, who had also started to search for a way out. “Hey, this way.” 

Turning sideways, Alex began to ease her way through a narrow gap that she’d found. A small slither of light was shining through from beyond, so it had to lead somewhere and for lack of a better alternative she decided to find out exactly where it led. 

The passageway was too tight for her to turn her head back and look, but soft shuffling noises behind her told her that the other woman was following.

“Hey Danvers, I found out why being short is an advantage,” The Detective’s voice cut through the darkness. “Come on and hurry up already.”

“Show off,” Alex grumbled as she struggled a lot more than the Detective seemed to be doing at navigating her way through the gap, before finally coming out onto a narrow ledge. “Careful. Go slow.”

“I got it,” Detective Sawyer appeared on the ledge beside her, her back flush to the wall behind them. Together they both started to shuffle sideways, keeping as tight to the wall as they could and neither of them willing to look down. 

They carried on in silence for a few minutes longer before finally Alex let out a breath of relief. “Okay, it’s getting wider. And I think I can see an entrance over there.”

When they had both reached a much wider platform, Alex pointed to some sort of opening that looked like a cave entrance.

Detective Sawyer shivered again. “Damn, Danvers, it’s fucking freezing, and not just because we’re in a cave.”

“Oh come on,” Alex rolled her eyes as she headed for the entrance. “It can’t be that— “ Her voice fell away as she stepped outside the cave and immediately wished she hadn’t. 

It seemed like they had emerged into some kind of frozen tundra with snow as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t very far admittedly, considering the fierce blizzard that was raging all around, kicking up great clouds of snow and proving to be a veritable wall of impenetrable ice.

“Fuck no,” Detective Sawyer grabbed Alex’s hand and dragged her back inside the cave again. “No, no, and fuck no.”

“It’s just snow,” Alex frowned as she called up her inventory to see if she had anything that might help them. However, her optimism quickly faded when she realised that she had barely anything and certainly nothing that would help with the snow. “Ok, I take it back. This is a problem. We’ll freeze to death if we try to cross that, dressed like this.”

“Where do we even need to go?” The Detective had her map open and was studying the hologram curiously. 

Alex moved over to stand beside her and pointed to the top of the map. “See this blinking marker here? That’s our objective. In this case where we need to get to.”

“And where are we?”

Alex’s hand moved down to a blue dot all the way at the bottom of the map.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Detective Sawyer closed down her map and shook her head. “We’re fucked. And not in the good way. We could waste all three - or two - of our lives just trying to cross that thing. Who knows what’s waiting out there for us.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Alex interlocked her fingers and placed her hands behind her head as she started to pace. “We can’t stay here forever, and games have a certain time before they shut down to conserve energy. I really don’t want to find out what happens if we’re still here when our games shut down from inactivity.”

“That doesn’t sound good even to me, and I know jack shit about games. So what's the plan?”

“We need to keep going. Keep moving.” Alex pointed to the blizzard. “Out there.”

Detective Sawyer chuckled. “No, what’s the real plan, the good plan?”

Alex shook her head. “There isn’t a good plan. Only this one. We can’t go back, and we can’t stay still, so we have to go forward.”

“Are you sure we can’t go back?” The detective glanced back over her shoulder. “Maybe there’s a different exit from the desert, one that doesn’t drop us in the middle of the arctic. At least it was warm back there.”

“Standard video game rules,” Alex shook her head again. “Once you’ve passed a level, you can’t go back.” She stepped as close to the entrance as she dared again, and peered out. “Maybe there’s some shelter we can reach that we just can’t see yet. There must be a way. Video games are hard, but they’re not impossible. Someone wouldn’t have created one that you can’t beat.”

“You sure about that? This is a murder game, right?”

Alex paced back and forth for a moment, her eyes never leaving the blizzard as she desperately tried to see beyond it. “Alright how about this. I have more lives than you, right? I’ll go on ahead. If I respawn back here, you’ll know I died and this way is a no go. But until we try, we won’t know one way or another if it’s the right way or not.”

“That’s an awful idea, heroic as hell, but awful. What if there are dangers you can’t see because I’m not there?” Detective Sawyer stepped up closer, right to the edge of Alex’s personal bubble. “We’re in this together, Danvers.” Then she stuck out her hand.

“You’re sure?” Alex asked, hesitating, but only for a moment before she took Detective Sawyer’s hand. “Stick close and don’t let go. If we get separated out there, we might never find each other again.”

“Like glue, Danvers.”

Ducking their heads, the two stepped out bravely into the driving snowstorm as it swirled all around them. The fierce winds tugged at their hair, their clothes, their exposed skin whilst each flake of snow burned upon contact. How snow could burn, Alex wasn’t sure, but it sure as hell felt like it did as each flake settled on every inch of her in just a matter of seconds. Even breathing had become near impossible. The simple action of drawing a breath was beyond painful and already her lungs burned just trying to get the oxygen they so desperately needed. How dogs were able to breathe with their heads stuck outside the windows of moving vehicles, she would never understand.

Glancing to her side, she saw that the Detective was already wearing a light dusting of snow as well and her jaw was clenched tight. Indeed Alex’s own jaw was clenched tight as well, to try and stop her teeth from clashing together, though already her body was wracked with violent shivers that she had no control over.

This was ridiculous. A huge mistake. They shouldn’t have come out here. The blizzard was… wait. Was it just her imagination, or was it easing up? The way through the storm was becoming gradually clearer, visibility beyond the driving snow increasing with every struggling step she took.

It took a moment for Alex to realize the odd sensation in her arm was Detective Sawyer holding her mostly numb hand and tugging. When she had Alex’s attention, the detective pointed into the distance, then at her own eyes and back in the same direction across the frozen tundra again. When the detective pointed between the two of them and then to the distance again, the meaning was clear. She had seen something in the distance, and she wanted Alex to go with her. Alex nodded, gritted chattering teeth together, and followed along with Detective Sawyer, hoping whatever she’d seen was warmer than where they were now.

Not far out, a structure came into sight as the wind settled, no longer blowing the snow around, before it picked up again. Alex leaned into her forward motion, now inspired toward some kind of shelter (she hoped). As they neared it, it became clear to Alex that this was little more than a small shed, but still, it held fast against the raging storm and promised shelter. She didn’t hesitate when Detective Sawyer yanked on the handle and added her own strength to pull the door further open against the pile of snow that had built up over its base. In short order, they had a gap big enough for them to both slip in through, and they were inside with the door slammed shut behind them.

The inside was sparse, nothing but a small shack with a chest to one side and… there was a dead body. At least, Alex assumed the person was dead. Well, that didn’t bode well. She just hoped it wasn’t another beta tester who had only made it this far before expiring. Outside of that, the shed was empty. It did block the wind, providing a surprising amount of warmth (though Alex expected it was still far from truly warm). Feeling began to come back to her hands and face, something she instantly regretted as the pain set it.

“How long does it take to get frostbite?” Detective Sawyer asked as she wiggled her fingers. “Am I gonna still be able to count to ten after this, Doc?”

Alex grinned. Even in this dire situation, the detective's tireless good humor was spreading. It was something she could use in her life… and that thought got pushed to the side as Alex said, “I’m sure you’ll be able to, but you may need to take off your shoes to do it.”

“Ouch. Harsh bedside manner.” Detective Sawyer gestured toward the chest. “It’s glowing blue. That’s what I saw.”

“You saw that,” Alex gestured to the normal, absolutely not glowing chest, “from outside?”

“Yup,” she responded. “I’m going to open it.”

Detective Sawyer had only taken one step forward before Alex grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“It’s blue.” Maggie shrugged. “You have a better idea?”

Alex eyed the body on the floor near the chest. “Hold on.” She pulled up her inventory and selected her pistol, wiggling her cold fingers to get a decent grip, and then nudged the body with her toe. It didn’t stir, so she carefully rolled it over with her foot. Well, it sure looked dead. Acted dead too. “Okay, go ahead. I don’t think this guy is going to give you any trouble.”

“Appreciated.”

As Detective Sawyer opened the chest, Alex knelt to loot the body. A quick patting of the corpse brought up a selection of items, just like the display at the merchant’s shop. It seemed like an easy enough process. Finally, something made sense in this place. She took the clip of ammo, the pouch of 20 coins and the lighter but left the wooden spoon and bowl because they were clearly labelled as ‘junk’ so she suspected they would simply clog up her inventory.

“Hey, good news. Inside here there are— What the hell are you doing?!”

“What?” Alex looked up from where she knelt over the body to see a rather horrified looking Detective Sawyer watching her. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you robbing that body? What the fuck?”

“What? No.” Alex stood as she tried to defend herself. “I’m just looting the body. That’s different.”

“Yeah, I know what looting means. Stealing is stealing no matter how you want to spell it. Call it looting, expansion, colonisation. Call it anything you want, but if it belongs to someone else, don’t touch it.”

Even as Detective Sawyer crouched back down, her back to Alex, and dug through the chest again, Alex ran her hand through her hair and stepped closer. “This isn’t even a person.” The detective looked back at her, obviously skeptical. “No, really, it’s just an NPC corpse that they put in the game so you can search it and find treasure. It’s no different than… than that trunk you’re going through.”

“It sure looks different.” Detective Sawyer knocked on the side of the chest. “It sure feels different. What you’re doing feels wrong.”

“It’s not. It’s just pixels, same as that box. I promise.” Though she didn’t look convinced, the detective turned back to her chest and began gathering something into her arms. “What have you got there?”

“Coats.” Detective Sawyer stood with a bundle of warm looking clothing in her arms. “You want white or white?”

“Um… white?”

“Good choice,” the detective said, and she tossed one of the coats over to Alex. 

It felt thick, like something that would block some of the wind outside, and it had a hood with fur around the edge. Alex slid it on and felt instantly warmer. The magic of video games.

Before Detective Sawyer slipped her own coat on, however, she reached into the chest and pulled out a bag of coins and a loaf of bread as well. “What do I do with these?”

“Keep them. Put them in your inventory,” Alex pulled her hood up, then peered in the chest. “Don’t suppose there’s gloves in there?”

“No such luck,” Detective Sawyer shook her head as she stowed her coins and the bread then pulled her own coat on. “And I’m guessing we’re going back out there now?”

“At least we have a coat?” Alex shrugged, already heading for the door. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” the detective grumbled. Then she reached out for Alex’s hand again. At a raised eyebrow from Alex, Detective Sawyer added, “So we don’t get lost. Don’t worry Danvers, I’m not making a habit of holding your hand.”

Alex very nearly replied “shame” but held it back and instead heaved open the door, the two of them ducking their now hooded heads and stepping back out into the snow again. 

It was surprising just how much difference the coats made, because Alex didn’t feel cold at all now. She felt snug and warm, a stark contrast to how she’d felt just moments earlier. 

With a newfound determination, aided by the fact they were now warm and didn’t have to battle the cold, both girls set off across the white desert of… nothingness. This was becoming a common theme, and Alex wasn’t sure she liked it. 

After a few minutes of silent walking, she couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “This feels far too familiar.”

“What was that, Agent?” Detective Sawyer turned her head, but the hood didn’t turn with her so after fumbling about with it for a moment, she was finally able to pull it to one side so that she could actually see again. “You’ve been here before?”

“We both have,” Alex replied as she used her free hand to point out ahead of them, then swept it in a slow sideways gesture. “Nothing as far as the eye can see, literally a huge, vast, empty expanse of nothingness no matter how far or for how long we walk. Sounding familiar?”

“We’re in another desert,” Detective Sawyer realised with a nod. “Only this one is cold as fuck. At least the other one was warm.”

“It’s also daytime,” Alex glanced up at the sky briefly, but she couldn’t look for too long because the sunlight and the continually falling snow made it virtually impossible to do so. “So no chance of moonlight leading the way this time.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have to. Look.” The detective was pointing to something in the distance, and squinting through the snow, struggling thanks to photokeratitis, or snow blindness as it was also known, Alex could just about made out some sort of post - no, make that two posts - sticking out of the ground. Some sort of gateway?

As they drew nearer she realised that it wasn’t a gateway however. Instead it was two posts that made up a very, very questionable looking old bridge made of nothing more than planks of wood and tattered ropes. It stretched across a huge gaping chasm that fell away into darkness, as Alex peered carefully over the edge to get a better look. Chances of them surviving a drop like that were non existent. The gap was also too large for them to jump across, even with a decent run up, so the bridge was literally the only way. But Alex didn’t like it.

She stepped back and looked around to see if there was another way, then sighed when she looked back at the bridge again to study it more closely. The ropes that made up the bridge crossing the gorge must have been years old. Decades, perhaps even centuries. Who knew? Lying across the two bottom ropes, worm-eaten and rotten boards offered risky footings, whilst vertical side ropes attached to the long horizontal pieces of old rope were all they had for hand railings.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she muttered, raising a foot to step out onto the bridge, only to be tugged roughly back by the detective, who shook her head vehemently. At Alex’s questioning gaze, the detective pointed. 

“Red is dead, and there’s a _lot_ of red out there. Maybe I should go first.”

“Maybe that’s a good idea,” Alex nodded. “Although that thing doesn’t look strong enough to hold both of us at the same time, so when you get to the other side you’ll have to guide me.”

“Right,” Detective Sawyer nodded, though she hesitated for several seconds before finally taking a deep breath and stepping out slowly onto the first board. The second and third boards provided sound footing, then she hopped over the fourth, avoided the sixth, ninth and tenth, though avoiding two in one go was a bit of a challenge but she made it and was about halfway across when there was a deafening roar from somewhere. 

Alex spun just in time to see a gigantic white mass of fur and onyx daggers driving straight for her head. Instincts kicked in and years of training came into their own as she threw herself into a forward roll beneath the murderous limb, came up on her knees on the other side, then scrambled to her feet and turned to see what the hell had just attacked her.

Just like with the marketplace disappearing as they’d entered the desert, she really should have seen this attack coming as well. After all, a gigantic polar bear wasn’t exactly out of place in a frozen winter tundra like this. The beast was now between her and the detective, however. The detective who had turned to find out what was going on, and had then started to come back.

Alex waved one arm frantically at her. “No! Keep going!”

Her shouts caught the attention of the bear again, who had until that point been eying up the bridge as if weighing it’s chances of being able to cross it to get to the detective. 

Now, however, it turned back to Alex who fumbled with her inventory quickly and grabbed her handgun. She really hoped she didn’t have to use it. Video game pixel character or not, polar bears were majestic, wonderful creatures who… yep, it was staring at her like she was lunch. Of course.

As it let out another bellowing roar, she raised her gun and took aim, then fired three rounds as it started to charge her. Each round struck it right between the eyes and she expected it to keel over after at least the second shot. But even after the third, it still kept coming.

“Well, fuck.” Losing her composure momentarily at the sight of several tons of murderous killing machine charging directly at her, she emptied the remainder of the clip only to realise belatedly that the effort had been futile and, ultimately, wasted. Bullets wouldn’t stop the thing. If anything, they just made it madder, even more furious. Time for Plan B.

Diving to the side as it swiped for her again, she scrambled back to her feet and sprinted for the bridge, seeing that the detective had safely reached the other side and was now waving her arms and shouting.

“NO! RED! STOP!”

“Fuck that,” Alex gasped, streaking onto the bridge. She’d much rather take her chances with the planks than with the bear. All she had to do was remember which ones the Detective had avoided. So that was the fourth, sixth, ninth and tenth together… Alex realised her mistake too late as she discovered that this was about the point where she’d stopped concentrating on the detective and had been forced to play dodgems with a very angry polar bear instead. Her foot struck another board and it snapped cleanly in two beneath her boot. She tried to pull it back quickly, but her momentum carried her forward and she lost her balance, falling forwards onto the boards in front of her, all of which gave way as well under the sudden weight crashing down on them. With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, she found herself falling, falling, falling into the terrible darkness, the bridge getting smaller and smaller the further she fell until at last there was nothing.

At all.

Anywhere.

It was eerie and disconcerting and terrifying all at the same time. She tried to call out, tried to move, tried to do something, but nothing. And then she was falling again, but this time there was a light below her and it was coming up fast.

Too fast.

Fuck! 

Landing in a sprawled heap in a mound of snow, Alex picked herself up and spun in a complete circle, only to discover that she was back at the start of the bridge again and the broken boards had reset. Tugging her sleeve up quickly to reveal an angry red cross over one of her tattoos confirmed her suspicion that she’d just lost her first life. And she was back in murder bear land too. Perfect. Could this game get any - nope, she wasn’t even going to finish that thought. No need to tempt fate, after all.

“Detective!” She called across, then pointed to the bridge. “Little help here?!” _And quickly_ , she very nearly added, well aware that the bear could still be out there somewhere, making its way back to her even now.

“What the fuck happened?” The detective’s voice carried back across from the other side of the chasm.

“Just get me across before that bear comes back, and I’ll tell you.”

With the Detective’s help this time, Alex took it much slower and waited to hear if each step was safe, or should be avoided. When she came to a large section with five planks in a row that needed to be avoided, she had to grip the ropes on either side, then swing herself across, her agility coming into its own then and helping her to safety. By the time she was on the other side, she had no idea how much time had passed, but she had never been more relieved to have her feet planted firmly on terra firma as she was now.

“Welcome to the other side,” Detective Sawyer said. “You want to tell me what happened, exactly? You disappeared off the bridge, and then you reappeared on the other side.”

Alex took the detective’s shoulder and gently but firmly turned her away from the bridge. “Walk and talk Detective. Walk and talk. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to, especially not with polar bears on the prowl.”

Detective Sawyer raised her brows but began to walk. “Okay, so explain what happened.”

With a sigh, Alex tugged up the sleeve of her coat again and held out her wrist for the other woman to see the red cross over one of her lives. “Watch that first step. It’s a doozy.”

“Oh, that sucks. Did you… I mean, I saw you fall, but what happened? Did it hurt?”

“Honestly?” Alex considered for a time, before she shook her head. “You know when you go on a ride at an amusement park and you get that sensation in your stomach when the ride dips or drops? Aside from a continual feeling of that, and then landing face first in a mound of snow, there was literally nothing. It was… odd. I wasn’t even sure at first what was happening, until I found myself back in front of the bridge and the boards had reset themselves.”

“Nothing?” Detective Sawyer shuddered. “I don't know if that’s better or worse than the snake bite. At least I could feel something happening.”

“I’ve been poisoned before,” Alex shook her head. “Give me falling off a bridge over being poisoned any day.”

The detective nodded slowly as she considered this for a moment, and then her brows slowly dipped. “So, question. When I died, I respawned in the same place. I figured you’d end up respawning down there somewhere. Why didn’t you? Why did you get sent back to a different place?”

“I suspect it’s video game rules at play again,” Alex admitted. When she saw the detective’s confused expression, she decided to elaborate. “Sometimes in video games, if the area isn’t safe, it won’t respawn you where you died. Otherwise you could end up trapped in an impossible loop where you end up dying each time you respawn. To stop that from happening, some games respawn you to the closest ‘safe place’ and I guess that was the closest safe place for me at the time.”

“Oh,” the detective nodded. “So when we die, we might not always end up where we fell?”

“Well, I mean I don’t know for sure,” Alex shrugged. “But it’s a theory. Based on other video game behaviours. Otherwise I could have ended up trapped in a loop of constantly falling and dying then falling over and over and over.” 

The detective chuckled, and Alex looked sharply down at her and was met with a wry grin as she said, “You know, when I saw you at that crime scene, I never thought we’d be walking through a frozen wasteland and comparing the ways we died.”

Alex couldn’t help but chuckle as well and shake her head again. “I can’t say it was one of the thoughts going through my head at that moment, either. In fact, it’s not something I ever thought I’d do with anyone. Compare scars and war wounds, sure. Trade stories of the weird and wonderful shit we’ve seen. But never comparing how we’ve died.” 

“Small world, I guess.” They walked for about a minute in silence, still seeing no end to the tundra around them. “So, since we’re on first death terms now, I should tell you I saw you in the police station talking to my captain. I kind of… I put myself in a position to overhear your conversation with him.”

“Yeah?” It was Alex’s turn to raise an eyebrow this time. “Were you spying on me Detective? You do know that’s a Federal Offence? What was said between the Captain and myself in that room was meant to be confidential.”

“You were talking about my case, Danvers. I should have been brought in on it. Doesn’t the FBI believe in jurisdiction or proper protocols?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault your Captain didn’t read you in,” Alex shrugged. “Though to be honest I was kind of glad, after the way you tore into that cop at the scene. What was his name? Smalls?”

“Smalls?” Detective Sawyer snorted. “That walking disaster with legs? You saw that?”

“Bit hard not to when I’m sure the whole block heard it,” Alex shrugged with a wry smile. “So he screwed up. But it was only a minor mistake, right?”

“Danvers, if it was just one mistake, I wouldn’t have created a new orifice for that kid. I’ve got a murder suspect on the street, someone I had dead to rights, because Smalls is such a screwup with evidence gathering. I’ve spent hours, days, trying to educate this rookie. I took him into the lab with me to show him how we scan for DNA. I showed him what happened when samples got mixed. I did everything but send him back to school for a degree in criminal investigations.” Detective Sawyer shrugged. “Some people are just too stupid to help.”

Alex blinked, surprised by this answer. Which was definitely not one she’d been expecting. Eventually she nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Eh, it’s part of my job as a detective, you know? We take the rookies under our wings and try to help them out, but there comes a point where we have to balance that with public good, and I just don’t think Smalls being a cop is in the best interest of the community… or Smalls. Maybe he could be a dog catcher or something. I think he’d get along well with those he _arrested_ there.”

Before Alex could come up with some retort in return, they came to the top of a small incline and she gasped. “Where the fuck did that come from? I don’t remember seeing that on the map?!”

In front of them was a gigantic mountain, it’s peak vanishing into the clouds far, far above - a huge monument of imposing rock that would be impossible to climb and may take forever to divert around. If they couldn’t go over it, under it or round it, then to quote one of her favorite childhood stories, they would just have to go through it.

“Can you see any pathway or anything to say which way we go next?” Alex asked as she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the overhead sun as she peered up.

“That way.” Detective Sawyer pointed toward the base of the mountain. “I think I see one of those clue thingies. Come on.”

“Right behind you, Detective,” Alex nodded.

Together, they crossed the span of the tundra and headed toward the mountain range. And range it did. The closer they got, the more apparent the size of it became. Luckily, as they neared the base, a wide opening became apparent. It would offer further protection from the storm and no doubt lead them on toward the next level.

As they entered the cavern mouth, visibility immediately improved. Just a few steps in showed them a vast frozen cave, icy stalagmites and stalactites stretched from floor and ceiling, often meeting to form haphazard pillars. When the light shifted, Alex looked behind them. Whatever this place was seemed to be a timing mechanism for the game as the sun, which had been high above their heads during their whole trip here, sank lower and lower in the sky.

As it reached a certain point on the horizon, its rays of light hit the cave, and the crystals began to glow - just a faint, dull glow at first, but it soon became more and more pronounced, the colors truly coming to life.

"Oh… wow… " Alex breathed as she watched the spectacle unfold. Even Detective Sawyer was rendered speechless.

They could see each color of the rainbow in the glowing light, and at the very edge of the spectrum, an eighth color that neither of them had a name for.

Behind the light, Alex could still distinguish the individual crystals, each one reflecting the light in a different manner and creating a different color to its neighbour. Behind these crystals she could also see other crystals further back stretching far off into the depths of the cavern, the light not yet reaching them. She could see the sides the light touched, and the dark sides, distinct and separate.

The entire scene was so beautiful that she inhaled sharply in shock, having never seen anything like it in her entire life.

"This looks... looks..."

"Gay," The detective interjected, making Alex turn her head sharply in the other woman's direction. "What? It's the entire rainbow and then some. This looks amazingly, fantastically, beautifully gay."

Alex turned back to survey the scene in front of them for a moment, a slow smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Finally the smile broke through completely, and she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”

“It’s lesbian approved.”

Again Alex looked sharply across at the Detective, more than a little surprised. “How did you know I was a lesbian?”

Detective Sawyer grinned, her dimples slowly deepening as she tilted her head to the side and looked at Alex with a knowing, squirm inducing expression, though the agent did her best to hold fast. Finally, the detective spoke, letting Alex in on whatever one of the many little jokes that seemed to be running through her head on a regular basis. “I meant me. I’m the lesbian that approves, but good to know, Danvers.”

“I-I- well I… uh…” Alex floundered, running one hand through her bob of red hair for lack of anything better to do with her hands just then, aside from fidget awkwardly. Well, even more awkwardly than she already was.

Detective Sawyer chuckled, apparently taking pity on Alex as she cocked her head to the side, toward further down the cave, and stepped away. “Come on my little tomato. Catch up!”

“I am not a tomato!” Alex grumbled as she followed. And then she frowned. “Alright, seriously, I saw your speed stats. How are you so much quicker than me?!”

“Don’t know. Watch your head.” Detective Sawyer pointed up briefly as she continued on her way.

Alex glanced up, saw a low hanging rock that she would otherwise have not spotted until it was undoubtedly too late, ducked beneath it and emerged safely on the other side. “Thanks.”

“No problem. The challenges of the vertically gifted, huh?” 

The detective stopped with her hands on her hips and looked around. The cavern walls continued on either side, but before them was a wall of solid ice. It was thick, thick enough to make it impossible to see through clearly, but not so thick that no light passed through. It was obvious the passageway continued on the other side of the ice barrier. The only problem was, how to get to the other side?

“You think your detective thing will work again this time?” Alex asked curiously as she stepped forward and placed a hand against the wall of ice. “There’s got to be some sort of doorway through this thing, right?”

“My ‘detective thing’?” Detective Sawyer waggled her eyebrows and grinned in a way that made color rise in Alex’s cheeks. “Okay, let me just whip out my _thing_ and wave it around.” Instead of any possible obscene hand gestures, she just furrowed her brows in concentration and turned slowly, her gaze carefully scanning the surrounding area. It took only about thirty seconds before she broke into a grin again and pointed at the wall over Alex’s shoulder. “You mean something like that?”

“Something like what?” Alex turned on the spot, looked at the wall in question, then back to the detective in confusion. “What are you seeing that I’m not?”

“Move amatuer,” Detective Sawyer said, waving a hand at Alex as she strode by. “I mean this.”

She stopped against the wall, one hand resting on what at first looked like a jagged piece of rock jutting out, but as the detective wrapped her hand around it, the shape of a lever’s handle became clear. It’s camouflage was perfect… nearly perfect, unless you were a detective.

“Detective, wait,” Alex replied quickly. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“No shit, Sherlock. We’re stuck in a video game, and that snake bite hurt worse than my ex-girlfriend’s opinion of me that she shared on her way out the door. I have a bad feeling about this whole place, but do you see any other options?”

“Are you sure there’s no other levers, or… I dunno. Secret passages? Other doors we could use or…” Alex’s voice trailed off as she shook her head. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, go ahead before I change my mind again.”

“That sounds like consent to me.” Detective Sawyer pulled down on the lever, and a tremor went through the room. She and Alex both turned toward the ice wall and waited, but a few seconds later, the Detective looked down, and her expression turned to one of fear. “Oh, fuck me.”

Alex also glanced down. “Oh for fuck’s sa—” 

Suddenly, the floor gave way, dropping them down several feet before they hit a slope of ice which directed them further down but on an angle. Alex struggled to stay sitting, but the speed at which she was travelling quickly made that impossible. Stalagmites and stalactites seemed to speed by, and she quickly lost sight of the detective in the growing divide. The slope curved up and slightly around her like a part of a tube, and then the twists and turns came into play. At one time, Alex’s slide twisted and turned completely over, leaving her glad the speed she was travelling kept her in place. When she passed over the detective who slid below her before disappearing out of sight again, it was difficult to say which one of them was more surprised.

The slope leveled off, and Alex began to slow down. She thought her turmoil might finally be at an end until the slide stopped over an opening. “Fuck!” Alex dropped several feet into an icy room below and continued forward, rolling and tumbling in an ungainly, inelegant heap before finally colliding awkwardly with the wall. 

“Son of a bitch,” she grumbled, sitting up gingerly, then very slowly pulling herself back to her feet and looking all around. The detective was nowhere in sight, which was more than a little worrying. Alex also appeared to be in some kind of small, square room made entirely of ice, though unlike the ice that blocked their way up above, this ice was much more translucent, almost glasslike in fact and easier to see through to the other side and what lay beyond.

A hand placed against the surface confirmed to Alex that it was indeed ice and not glass that now encased her in what she had quickly decided must be a cell of some kind. A cell with no visible door, no windows, and no way out except for the way she’d just— yeah no, there was no way in hell she was climbing back up there, she realised as she stood with hands on hips surveying the way she’d just come. It must have been at least thirty feet up to the ledge she’d dropped off of, perhaps even more with nothing but walls of sheer ice on all sides and no way to climb.

At a growing noise, a high-pitched almost howl, Alex’s head turned left and right. The sound echoed off the cavernous walls around her, but then it grew louder and more focused, and she turned her head sharply to her right just in time. Shooting from the ceiling of a mirror image tank to her own came Detective Sawyer. She hit the icy floor hard, bouncing and sliding the length of the room until she struck the far wall with considerable force. It was enough to make Alex grimace and absentmindedly rub her shoulder again in sympathy. 

“Mierda! Hijo de la chingada.”

Alex only understood a word or two of that, just enough to know she wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment from her own rather unceremonious arrival. She stepped up to their adjoining ice wall and knocked, waiting for the detective to turn so she could flash a small smile and wave.

“Are you okay?”

Detective Sawyer rose, making her way over to the dividing ice barrier where Alex stood. “Yeah, I think I just got a nasty bruise on my,” she rubbed at her butt, “dignity.” She flashed Alex her dimples before a serious expression crossed her face, and she looked up to the opening where she’d fallen in and then across the room. “Hey, how am I okay? That should have killed me ten times over. I’m surprised I’m not a Sawyer pancake with the velocity of that fall mixed with the sudden stop. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but what happened to physics?” 

“Somehow, I don’t think any of that applies here,” Alex smirked as she briefly glanced back to the drop she’d also experienced. And then she considered. “I think… if I had to guess, I’d say we just went through a cinematic cutscene.”

Detective Sawyer stared long and hard at Alex before breaking her gaze and looking around the room again. “I’m just going to pretend that makes sense. Okay, so now what? I feel like a fish stick in the frozen section of the grocery store. You got a plan?”

“Aside from making some probably very poorly received Frozen remarks, I haven’t a clue,” Alex shook her head. “I’ve checked my side and I can’t see anything. No doors, no windows, no way out. How about you?”

“Hold on. Let me have a look around.” The Detective’s gaze swept first the translucent barrier between them then the one that opened to the cavern. She studied the ceiling high above from where she had fallen, then the walls, perhaps looking for any way back up and out. When her head cocked to the side and her brows furrowed, it seemed clear the detective had detected something. “Hold on. What have we here?” she asked, as she moved to the back wall close to the section adjoining Alex’s cell. “I found a lever… but given what happened the last few times I’ve pulled one, maybe I shouldn’t touch it.”

Alex looked at the back wall of her own cell, then walked over and felt around for herself, mirroring the detective’s actions. To her surprise, even though she couldn’t see the lever immediately, her hand finally found one in her own cell and she grinned. “I’ve got one too.”

“I could keep searching,” Detective Sawyer glanced around again, “but this is honestly the only thing I see. I think our options are pulling them or waiting until we have frozen frittatas.” 

“What other choice do we have?” Alex sighed, letting go of her own lever for a moment and rubbing the back of her neck. “I guess we’ve got to go for it.” Replacing her hand on the lever again, she looked across to the detective. “On three?”

“On three,” Detective Sawyer agreed. “One, two, three.” They both pulled down and… nothing happened. The levers were frozen in place, both unmoving as if equal pressure was pulling them back up. After several seconds, they stopped, and with a grin Maggie said, “Honestly, with the way my luck is going with levers, that was a better outcome than I expected.” 

Despite herself, Alex couldn’t help but chuckle. “Do you have to make a joke out of everything? This is a serious situation.”

“I was serious. At least I’m not falling, screaming, grabbing my ankles, and kissing my ass goodbye.” The Detective shrugged and grabbed hold of the lever again even as Alex looked around. “Maybe we just need to put our weight into it.”

“Detective—”

And the detective did, grabbing the lever and bending at the knees, letting her whole body weight pull on it. The lever moved surprisingly easily, sliding down smoothly. However, at the same time, Alex’s lever slid up. There was a rumble, and the clear ice wall groaned and moved sliding to make a door-sized opening on the detective’s part of the cell, though not on Alex’s. What happened in Alex’s room was much, much worse. The ceiling shuddered, and pieces of ice and stone shifted to reveal that overhead was not just solid but a vast sea of what was likely icy water, only held back by what appeared to be a sheet of ice. At the same time, more stone slid over the slide opening, blocking the only conceivable exit no matter how impossible it was to reach.

“Hey, a doorway,” Detective Sawyer said as she headed for it.

“No, wait,” Alex gasped as she backed quickly up against one of the walls, trying in a futile attempt to put distance between herself and the water above as she stared up at it with wide eyed fear. “Detective! Wait! Don’t leave me in here!”

“Hey, hey chill, Danvers.” Detective Sawyer hurried outside the room to stand in front of Alex’s tank. Her nimble fingers danced across the ice in an obvious search for something, some exit or seam, to aid in escape. “I’m not going anywhere. Let me just—”

Lights flashed on behind her, light after light illuminating other cells like theirs but different. They were grouped into pairs of cells, at least one of every pair was filled with water… and had a body floating inside. In the one across from Alex was a woman, her hair spanning out from her body, her arms and legs moving slightly with the tiny motions from the water. Her cloudy eyes stared at Alex across the room, long dead but beckoning Alex to join her.

Detective Sawyer held up her hands as she stared at the floating corpses. “I swear, I didn’t touch anything. That wasn’t me. There wasn’t any red!”

If it was even possible, Alex’s eyes widened even further. And then her hands raised into fists and she began to pound at the ice at the front of the cell where Detective Sawyer’s had opened but hers hadn’t. She pounded with both fists furiously, desperately, hysterically. “Get me out! Get me out now! I swear to God, get me the fuck out of here now! Please! I’m begging you!” Her feet joined her fists in her desperate but futile attempt to break through the ice to freedom, even as her breathing became rapid, panicked and frantic. Smears of blood began to streak the cold surface as her knuckles split under the continual impact with the ice, but she ignored the pain and continued, her desperation to escape far outweighing any pain.

“Hey, calm down! Danvers, look at me. You got to… Fuck this!” With a fierce determination, the detective strode back into her cell and pushed the lever back up. She pushed it through the neutral position and all the way up. Then she waited. The doorway to her cell closed as the wall slid back, closing her in but continuing to move until it created an opening on Alex’s side. Likewise, Detective Sawyer’s ceiling rumbled, and the opening there closed even as the water above her head was revealed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She glanced over at Alex who was still far from calm, but had at least ceased pounding at the ice and was now staring around her cell in wide eyed panic instead. “Danvers. Danvers, look at me!” She moved to the front of her cell and pressed a hand against their adjoining wall. “Alex! Over there. Get out.”

It took Alex a moment to realise what the Detective had said, an even longer moment for the words to process before eventually she stumbled blindly for the doorway, letting out a sob of relief when she was through and on the other side. “I… I’m sorry. I just—” she motioned to the ceiling of the detective’s cell. “I couldn’t. I just— fuck!” Pacing back and forth a few times, her hands running through her hair, she drew in a couple of deep breaths, which slowly seemed to help calm her down. When at last she felt calm enough to talk again, she walked over to Detective Sawyer’s cell and placed her own bloodied hand on the ice. “Are… are you...?”

The detective joined her, placing her own hand to mirror Alex’s, only several inches of ice keeping them apart. She smiled up at Alex and held the gaze until Alex managed a shaky and half-hearted smile in return, though it didn’t reach Alex’s eyes. But it was a start. “I’m good, Danvers. You okay?”

“No,” Alex admitted quietly with a slight shake of her head. Then she took another deep, calming breath before pulling herself up to stand a little taller. “Okay. So what do we do now?”

“We?” Detective Sawyer grinned. “I don’t think this is a ‘we’ situation. I sit on my albeit fine ass and wait while you figure out a way to get me out of here. So get figuring.”

Alex stepped back and gave a weak, trembling salute. “Yes Ma’am. Don’t… uh… don’t go anywhere whilst I’m figuring it out though, okay?”

“Pretty sure I can manage that.” With a wry grin, Maggie moved to the far corner near the clear ice wall, sat down, leaned back with her hands behind her head, and stretched her legs out in front of herself with her ankles crossed. Given the situation, she looked incredibly relaxed. “If I doze off from all this boredom, wake me, okay?”

“This isn’t funny, Detective,” Alex grumbled. “Now’s not the time for jokes.”

“Who’s joking? It’s past time for my siesta.” Detective Sawyer waved Alex away with the back of her hand. “Now go be a hero and get me out of here.”

Despite the situation, Alex couldn’t hide the roll of her eyes as she turned her back on the tank, placed her hands on her hips and surveyed her surroundings properly, with a much calmer and more professional eye, now that she was no longer panicking. The room appeared to be circular with the tanks lining the edges, leaving a clear open space in the middle. Clear except for what seemed to be a large block of ice with various smaller shards lying scattered around its base. It seemed as good a place as any to start, so she walked slowly over, well aware that she was stepping out into a wide open space and from what she’d experienced in this game so far, that was never a good thing.

Reaching the large block of ice safely, she could see a series of different shaped holes carved into the top, forming some sort of pattern. Seven holes in seven different shapes. As she leaned a little closer to take a proper look, her foot knocked one of the crystal shards at her feet, and bending down to pick it up, she realised that one end of it was tapered and carved into a shape as well. This one was a triangle, just like that hole there… reaching forward, she slotted the crystal into the hole with relative ease. An idea quickly began to form in her mind about what the first step of this puzzle was, and she hurried to collect the other crystals. She then spent a few minutes checking each one out and finding the related gap for it in the block of ice. 

When she’d finished, there was a hum of some kind, almost like something was powering up, and then the crystals themselves lit up into a rainbow like the ones she and Detective Sawyer had seen back in the cave at the entrance to this nightmare.

“Okay, I think I’ve got something!” She called back to the detective as she turned to step away and see what else was around that might clue her in to the next stage. This icebox powered something, after all. And those crystals had lit up for a reason. The question was not only what, but also why?

“Hey, can you see anything from back there? What am I missing? This thing does something, but I can’t see what.” She called back to the detective when there was no indication of anything in her immediate area. Perhaps the detective’s special skills would come in handy again.

“Missed me already?” Detective Sawyer pushed to her feet and moved to where she practically pressed her face against the ice separator. “Um… yeah. There's something over on that far wall. I can’t see what it is, but I can see a blue glow.”

“Okay, we’ll go with that,” Alex nodded. “Blue is a clue, right?” Before she took a step in that direction, however, she hesitated then turned back to the detective. “Any red?”

“I don’t see any. I’ll keep an eye on you and yell out if I do. Just take it slow.”

“Copy that,” Alex nodded as she turned and very slowly walked towards the point that the Detective had indicated. Her eyes constantly darted around everywhere, looking for anything suspicious that could cause her harm, every muscle tense, every nerve twitching, her training kicking in and adrenaline fuelling her heightened senses as she became acutely aware of her surroundings, so sure that there was a trap and she was walking right into it. 

“It’s a sign!” She called back as she got closer. “I’m going to see if I can read it.” 

Another slow step forward. Then another. Then another… wait, this one felt different. Glancing down, she saw the tile she was standing on had lit up bright yellow, just as a loud echoing beat that sounded oddly familiar echoed around the icy arena (she had no idea if it was an arena, but it sounded better than ‘enclosure’ or ‘trap’). 

Around her foot, other tiles had changed color as well, ranging through all seven colors of the rainbow and matching the shades of the crystals over on the podium in the centre of the room.

“What the…?” She tilted her head, studying the area curiously. That strange beat continued and she found herself humming along. “I know that tune! I wonder if —” 

"Danvers! Whatever the fuck you're doing, stop it!" Detective Sawyer's voice cut through Alex's train of thought and she turned back to the ice cell in time to see the trapped detective backing away from a cascade of water that had started to pour into her cell from a crack in the ceiling above.

"Oh no, no no no! Fuck!" Alex sprinted back over to the cell, momentarily disregarding her own safety as she didn't even attempt to look for any hidden traps. Reaching the cell, she banged both fists on it to get the other woman's attention. "What happened?!"

"You tell me!" The detective snapped back as she pushed strands of wet hair away from her face. “I’ve had girls tell me I needed to go take a cold shower before, but this seems extreme.”

"Shit," Alex exclaimed, running both hands through her hair anxiously. "Shit, shit, shit."

Her eyes darted all around the cell, looking for something, anything to get the detective out. And the more she looked, the less she saw. And the less she saw, the more she started to panic that the detective would suffer the same fate as all the other bodies in all the other tanks. Regardless of whether they were real people or NPCs, it was a terrible way to go. Alex could vouch for that. 

Fumbling at her wrist in desperation, Alex called up her inventory and grabbed her handgun again. She really needed to find if there was some way to quickly store and retrieve it, because going to her inventory each time was simply not an option. But now was neither the time nor the place to be worrying about that.

“Stand back, Detective!” She called, raising the gun to take aim at the ice.

Detective Sawyer looked from Alex to the ceiling, from which the water had stopped draining, leaving her mid-thigh deep in icy water, then back to Alex. “You sure about this?”

“Do you want to end up like them?” Alex took one hand from the gun and made a vague sweeping gesture towards the other tanks. 

Detective Sawyer shuddered, though it might have been a shiver, as she wrapped her arms around her torso. “Fair point. I hope you’re a decent shot,” she said as she moved to the wall as far from the tank front as possible.

“You do realise I’ve got this sharpshooter skill for a reason, right?” Alex took aim with a two handed grip once more, then after a moment’s hesitation to steel herself and focus, she let off three rounds in quick succession.

The cracks of the gun echoed around the cavern but the ice itself remained unblemished. For a moment nothing happened… and then the ground shook violently beneath their feet. A few lumps of what looked to be ice and rock fell from the ceiling above, shattering across the ground nearby, one piece even causing Alex to flinch and jump to the side when it fell a little too close for comfort.

She glanced back quickly to the detective, and met her eye. “I… don’t think it liked me doing that.“

“Good detective skills, Agent,” Detective Sawyer said as she stared back, wide-eyed and shivering. “So, any ideas that won’t get us crushed underneath a mountain of ice?”

Alex tucked her gun into her waistband, even though she knew it was a terrible place to keep it, but it didn’t vanish back into her inventory which was a good start. Then she glanced back at the crystals again over in the block of ice. Then over to the lit up tiles… with shades that matched each of the crystals. It was only then that she noticed the music was still playing that familiar beat, which she hadn’t noticed in her determination to get the detective out of the cell.

“I have an idea,” she said after a few more minutes of careful consideration. “But I could be wrong. It might not work.” She turned back to face the detective again. “It might not work, and I could kill you.”

“I’d prefer it didn’t but,” the detective grinned even as another shiver wracked her body, “it wouldn’t be the first time today.”

“I really hate this game.” Alex ran her hand through her hair for what felt like the millionth time. It was a trait she had whenever she was nervous or anxious about anything. Some people bite their nails, some fidget from foot to foot, some eat anything in sight. Alex played with her hair. She didn’t even realise she was doing it most of the time, either. “Okay, I can try and find another way out of here, but I’m really not seeing anything, and apparently the game doesn’t like you trying to cheat or bend the rules… whatever the fuck the rules actually are.”

“Whatever your idea is, maybe you could just give that a try before I freeze my tatas off.”

“Okay… you’re right. I should just- I‘m going to go and do… yeah, I’ll go do that thing with the—” Alex motioned to the tiles, but for some reason had lost the ability to actually form a complete sentence. Maybe it was because the Detective was being quite distracting, without even trying.

_Snap out of it, Alex! This is life or death, literally_! She chided herself, even as she quickly hurried back over to the large block of ice to examine the crystals more closely. They were taking it in turns to flash and light up, but where Alex had assumed before that they were just random flashes of color, now she was starting to notice the pattern. As the beat continued - the beat that she was now absolutely a hundred percent sure belonged to the well known Queen song “Another One Bites the Dust” (a very appropriate song choice in all the wrong ways) - the crystals were lighting up in a specific pattern that appeared to fit the notes of the song.

Alex glanced over at the glowing tiles on the floor, the tiles that matched the colors of the flashing crystals, and nodded to herself. The answer seemed pretty obvious now, though if she were wrong… Alex swallowed hard… if she were wrong she’d kill Detective Sawyer. Well then, she better not fuck this up.

Walking back over towards the colored tiles, she tugged off her thick coat and dropped it nearby, freeing herself up for optimal movement. Although it was still quite chilly, it was nothing like the outside. She’d be fine. Alex almost reconsidered that when the coat hit the ground, and she immediately shivered. However, one glance over to where Detective Sawyer stood in freezing water that was nearly to her waist now made her step away from the coat and concentrate on the task at hand. 

Alex hummed again, following along with the end of the song as she glanced over at the crystals. “Yellow, yellow, blue…” She nodded to herself. All she had to do was match the colors to the notes as she made her way across the floor, and she’d reach the lever on the far side without drenching Maggie again… she hoped. Since stalling was likely to kill the other woman from hypothermia, Alex waited until the song reached its end, paused, and then restarted to step out onto the first floor tile.

She allowed herself a quick glance toward Detective Sawyer, releasing a sigh of relief when another shower didn’t start, and then continued on her way. The process was going smoothly. All she had to do was match the notes and tempo, and she was proceeding across the floor without further issue. The tiles she’d stepped on stayed lit, and any others in that row went out. This was promising. 

It was promising enough that she should have expected something to go wrong. Her next step was several tiles to her left, outside of her stride, and she had no choice but to leap to make the next note in time. As she landed, the heel of her foot must have hit the wrong color tile. There was an exclamation from her side, not so much words as one of general distress, but Alex didn’t even glance that way. She knew what was happening, knew the detective was getting flooded with half-frozen water again, but the best thing Alex could do was stay on target and on tempo.

There were several more easy steps, another leap that she did rather elegantly (and carefully), and then three more steps to reach the other side. Even as Alex smiled in relief, stepping onto the far end, the last dying note of the song hanging in the air, an entire area about three feet long and the length of the room lit up under her feet. It was a rainbow of colors, which should have been a good sign, but in this case, it wasn’t.

“Danvers!”

Alex glanced over at the detective as the tanks above her head opened completely. A deluge of water was spilling in, filling the chamber much faster than before. Alex gave an involuntary jerk in the direction of the trapped woman, her instinct to protect kicking in, before her training took over. She turned back toward the lever and took off, sprinting across the open area and grabbing it with both hands. She threw all of her strength and her full weight into it, jerking the lever down. She watched in horror as the entire floor lit up, certain she had just signed Detective Sawyer’s death warrant, but then all of the lights went out. When the tank in which the detective was now floating opened, and water came spilling out with its occupant, Alex raced over.

Sputtering as the remains of the water washed around her, Detective Sawyer looked up at Alex. “Okay, I’m not dead. Thanks?”

“Are you okay?” Alex was down on her knees beside the detective, one hand reached out to touch her shoulder, but hesitating, not making contact just yet.

“Yeah, peachy.” She wiped at her face, shaking her dripping arm off to the side. “Just remind me to cancel my health club membership and move to a gym without a pool. I think I’m good without swimming for a while.”

“You’re making jokes again.” Alex allowed herself to smile at last as she stood back up and offered the detective her hand. “You must be okay.”

“Well, I’m a tad bit nipply under here,” she said as she gestured to her torso, “which is a level of realism I could have done without in the game, but I’ll live.”

Alex found her eyes wandering, following the detective’s hand as she gestured, before catching herself suddenly and looking away, clearing her throat. “I’d, uh… offer you my coat, but I ditched it over there somewhere.”

“Let’s just get somewhere warmer. I don’t suppose you saw any towels lying around, did you, Danvers?”

“Can’t say that I did,” Alex shook her head, the hint of a shy smile tugging at the corner of her lips for a moment, before finally she added, “And you don’t have to call me Danvers all the time, you know. You could call me Alex if you want. It is my name, after all.”

“Call you Alex, huh?” Detective Sawyer seemed to consider that for a moment before her grin returned. “I can do that on one condition.” She held out her hand. “Call me Maggie.”

Alex took Maggie’s hand in her own and nodded, as they shook. “I can do that.” Then as she let go, she turned around and pointed to a new doorway that had opened up, that definitely hadn’t been there before. “So, Maggie… want to get out of this frozen nightmare?”

“Does a mariachi band include a vihuela player?” At Alex’s blank look, Maggie said, “Yes, the answer is yes. Lead on.”

Only stopping to grab her coat, Alex didn’t so much sprint towards the exit as lead the way at a fairly rapid pace, knowing full well that Maggie had the speed stats to be able to keep up. 

As they headed toward the exit, Alex motioned to her coat. “Want to switch?”

“Nah, you don’t want this one, and I’m already cold and wet. Let’s just keep going.”

Alex nodded and pulled her coat on, but she couldn’t help looking at Maggie, seeing the wet and half-frozen state the other woman was in and feeling guilty about it. “I’m sorry about… before.” 

“Hey, you didn’t set up this little hell away from home. It’s not your fault I was stuck in the polar bear’s swimming pool.”

“Actually, it is.” When Maggie met her gaze, Alex said, “If I had been able to keep calm, you could have stayed dry and gotten across the room. I was the reason you were stuck in there.”

“Hey, no you—”

“It’s true, and I’m really sorry. I had… something happened at work, and I ended up in a tank of water that was slowly filling for hours. I did everything I could to try and get out, to try and get myself more air, but all I managed to do was call for help and wait… wait to drown.”

“Jesus. That must have been… I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Alex shrugged, not because she didn’t appreciate the sentiment, not because it wasn’t accurate, but because talking about this wasn’t something she had really done. She told J’onn she was fine. She even told Kara everything was okay, but she still couldn’t take a bath, opting for showers always, and the damn nightmares still came from time to time. It wasn’t something she could admit to her family, admit that she had a weakness, but for some reason, she felt like she could say it to a relative stranger.

“I didn’t realize how bad it was,” Alex admitted. “I never thought my weakness could endanger anyone else’s life. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, Alex, look at me.” Alex did, and Maggie had offered her a gentle smile. Not the usual smirk that was coupled with a sarcastic comment, but something real that warmed up her eyes and set a fire deep in Alex’s gut. “You’re not weak. Surviving that, still doing the job, that takes strength. None of us get out of this life unscarred, but you’re keeping it together. That’s pretty damn impressive in my mind.”

“Yeah?” 

“Of course,” then that smirk returned, and Alex braced against the joke to follow, “but then again, I need my video game guru to get me out of this place, so maybe I’m just sweet talking you.”

Alex chuckled. “Well, if you are, it’s working.”

“It’s the Sawyer charm. Women are defenseless against it, even feds. You can put that in your report.”

“Maybe I will.”

Silently, but in a much better mood, Alex walked alongside Maggie as they headed out of the cavern and through a narrow passageway that seemed to be heading up. She didn’t know where she was going, but she couldn’t imagine doing it in better company.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Level 3 - The Devil’s Playground

The two of them emerged into another tunnel, this one lined with flaming torches along the walls to light the way.

Whereas up until now, everything had been freezing cold, the air had started to warm up at last. The further they continued, the warmer it got.

And then it got even hotter.

Maggie stopped shivering about halfway along.

And then it got even hotter still. So hot, in fact, that it was almost stifling, and Alex found it had become harder to draw breath. She tugged her coat off again and stashed it in her inventory.

Shortly after, Maggie did the same, even as she muttered "I don't like this." 

"Let's just go careful and watch our step," Alex agreed, then she flinched and bit back a cry of surprise as overhead, a deafening gong sounded.

"Fuck me!" Maggie exclaimed, hands clamped over her ears. Then, very slowly, she lowered them and said, "I guess we completed level two."

"Yeah," Alex nodded, pointing ahead to the vibrant red and orange glow coming from the end of the tunnel up ahead. "And I'm already not liking the look of level three."

"Out of the freezer and into the fire, huh, Danvers?" Maggie grinned in what Alex assumed was an attempt to keep the atmosphere light between them. But Maggie's grin soon vanished as they stepped out of the tunnel and onto a ledge, gazing down below in horrified awe. 

"Now I know how Frodo felt inside Mount Doom." Alex blanched as she took in the bubbling cauldron of lava below them, then slowly turned her gaze up towards the top of what was very clearly, without a shadow of a doubt, the top of a volcano. Which they were right in the heart of. "Did I already mention how much I really hate this game?"

For a moment, there was silence as the two of them contemplated their new situation. And then Maggie turned sharply to Alex. “Did you just call me a Hobbit?! I know I’m small, Danvers, but that’s just cold.”

“Ice cave’s back that way if you’re going to keep complaining,” Alex replied distractedly as she thumbed back in the direction they’d come from with one hand whilst edging slowly closer and closer to the edge to peer down. Then she cried out in surprise and scrambled backwards as a sudden whoosh of hot air shot up, followed by a column of flames momentarily, before it seemed to settle again. 

“Did I hear you call this place a game?” a voice spoke up from behind them, and both women spun on the spot, hands going to their hips and non-existent weapons out of habit more than anything. 

A wild eyed, almost feral looking young man with torn clothing and more than a few cuts and bruises stepped forward at last to make his presence known. Where he had appeared from, they didn’t know. Perhaps he’d been there all along, and they’d simply walked past him. Whatever the reason, his sudden appearance now had spooked them both. Though Alex was the first to recover. Or at least find her voice.

“Yes. I did.”

“Then you’re real people too?” His wild eyes softened into something more reminiscent of another emotion that could possibly have been hope, but it was hard to be sure. 

“Yeah,” Maggie spoke up this time. “We’re real. I take it you are too?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, holding a bloodied, scraped and calloused hand towards them for them to shake. “Eddie Sizer. Boy am I glad to see you two.”

“Alex Danvers,” Alex replied as she shook his hand. 

“Maggie Sawyer,” Maggie introduced herself when it was her turn. But rather than shake his hand and let go again, she instead held firm and turned his hand so that his wrist was on show. Two of his lives had angry red crosses through them, similar to Maggie’s own, like someone had carved the crosses with a blade into his very skin. “Have you been trying to climb your way out of here, Eddie?”

“How’d you know?” He asked, surprised. 

Maggie shrugged. “I’m a detective. I detect things. And those hands look like the desperate hands of someone who has tried to climb their way out of this hell hole.”

“Tried and failed several times,” Eddie admitted as Maggie finally let him have his hand back. “But I don’t see any other way out. There’s some loot caches over there in that little alcove bit, but there’s nothing of any use in them. Just a load of junk.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Maggie said, but she paused when a hand touched her shoulder.

“Can we,” Alex gestured with her head to the side even as she eyed Eddie carefully, “talk for a moment?” Alex drew Maggie off to the side, as far away from prying ears as they could manage in this environment, and whispered, “Something’s wrong. His marks are on the wrong wrists. This could be a trap.”

Maggie’s return grin was a bit disarming, and she cast her gaze around before stooping and standing again with a small rock in hand. “You’re so suspicious.”

“It’s in my job description,” Alex whispered back.

For some reason, that only made Maggie’s smile grow. The other woman’s constant smiling and joking was annoying… and distracting at times, but that was a problem to be deciphered once they weren’t trapped in a killer video game.

“Hey, Eddie,” Maggie called, making the man turn, “Catch.” She tossed the rock in his direction, and though it was a near thing - Alex doubted his agility scores were very high - he did manage to catch it… in his left hand. “He’s just left-handed, secret agent woman. I’m going to go search for stuff.”

As Maggie headed off in the direction of the alcove, Alex turned back to their surroundings, hands on her hips. “Alright, Eddie, how long have you been here?”

“I have no idea,” he shrugged, looking at the rock in his hand for a moment, clearly confused, then dropping it.

“Well, tell me what you know about this level.”

“Seems pretty simple enough. Get up to the top there,” he pointed to the opening way up above them. “Except nothing in this place is simple.”

“No, it’s not,” Alex rubbed sweat from her brow with the back of one hand, then called up her inventory. Browsing through, she couldn’t see anything that could possibly help them in any way, though she scrolled completely through just to be sure. Then sighed and closed the hologram window again. “Any luck back there, Detective?”

Two large rucksack looking items landed on the floor at Alex’s feet in answer, and frowning, she bent down to pick one up and study it, even as Maggie came back over dusting her hands. Seeing what she was holding, Alex raised an eyebrow. “A parachute?”

“Who knows what the fuck this crazy acid trip is going to throw at us next,” Maggie shrugged. “It’s better to be safe than sorry, right? Even if they don’t help us now, who’s to say that when we get to the top, we won’t need them to get back down again?”

Alex considered this for a moment, then conceded to this point with a nod. “Fair enough. Eddie, did you grab yours?”

“For all the good it will do,” Eddie shook his head. “We’ve got to get out of here first.”

“Working on it,” Alex nodded as she turned back to study their surroundings again. Another gust of hot air followed by a belch of flames caused her to step hastily back a few steps again. “Okay, so our options are to climb up and out…”

“Tried that. Failed miserably and now I’ve almost lost all my health,” Eddie shook his head.

“What about another way out? Secret tunnel? Hidden pathway?”

“I’ve scoured every inch of this place that I could get to,” Eddie shook his head again. “There’s nothing.”

“Can we go back?” Alex asked, turning to look down the tunnel that she and Maggie had come along, but once again Eddie shook his head. 

“There’s some kind of barrier that stops you from getting too far. Like it or not, ladies, we’re trapped here now.”

“Hot air,” Maggie blurted out suddenly. 

Alex turned to her, confused. “Is that your very polite way of saying bullshit?”

“What?” 

“Never mind,” Alex shook her head and then motioned with one hand. “Hot air. What about it?”

“That gush of hot air… the vent or whatever it is… it’s perfectly timed. Happens exactly every thirty seconds,” Maggie revealed, pointing to the whoosh of hot air and the belch of flames. “And there’s always a slight pause before it does, a moment of silence as if something is taking in a breath before exhaling the hot air. That’s not normal volcano behaviour.”

“We’re trapped inside a video game that wants to kill us, and all you can think about is the accuracy of one of the things that’s trying to kill us?” Eddie snapped. 

But Alex held up a hand to silence him, because Maggie may well be onto something. “You think it’s more than just a coincidence? Or a poor piece of game coding?”

“Look around you, Danvers,” Maggie motioned to them. “Does any of this feel like the work of someone who would slip up on something so minor and trivial? Whoever made this game put a hell of a lot of attention to detail, even down to that really annoying soundtrack that’s been following us around. If they set this thing to do that—” she motioned to another jet of hot air “ — at exact intervals, there’s a reason for it.”

“So that thing is the key,” Alex nodded. Very slowly, her eyes turned back down to the parachute she was still holding in her hands. And an idea began to form. “I know what we have to do.”

"What?" Maggie and Eddie asked in unison.

Alex slung the straps of the parachute over her shoulders and began to do up the straps. "Jump."

There was a moment’s pause as the other two stared at her, before Maggie finally broke the silence.

"... Fuck you. Seriously, what do we need to do?"

“Hot air rises,” Alex said simply as she fastened the last of the straps of her chute. 

Again there was a moment’s pause, and then Maggie started to pull her own parachute on. From the way her fingers nimbly strapped up, Alex got the impression that this wasn’t the first time the detective had put one on. 

Catching Alex watching her, Maggie smiled. “I go skydiving for fun in my free time. Done a couple of base jumps too.”

Alex nodded. “Fine, just let me go first. Wait until I’m clear before you go in. I don’t know how both of us in there at the same time will affect things.”

“You’re both crazy,” Eddie shook his head vehemently, backing away. Then he turned to the wall behind him. “Fuck this, I’m climbing my way out.” Grabbing onto rocky outcrops and small overhangs, he did exactly that, starting his way up with the determination of a man who had done this exact thing many times but was absolutely going to do it this time.

Tugging the last of the straps to tighten it, Maggie looked at Alex, more than a hint of concern in her eyes. “You’d better be right about this, Danvers.”

“Do you trust me?” Alex asked quietly, stepping forward to tentatively take Maggie’s hand in her own and give it an encouraging squeeze.

“You trusted me back in those ice caves,” Maggie nodded, squeezing Alex’s hand in return. “So yeah, I trust you, Danvers. Don’t you dare go and die on me now.”

“No promises,” Alex smirked as she let go of Maggie’s hand, backed up a few paces and then listened. That was when she heard it for the first time. Maggie was right, it sounded like someone sucking in a deep breath. Maggie’s nod of confirmation was all Alex needed. She turned, broke into a flat out sprint towards the edge of the rocky ledge they were on, and then kicked off with both feet, leaping out into the open air, above the raging pit of burning, churning, boiling lava down below her. 

For the briefest of moments she experienced a sensation of complete weightlessness, like she was flying. And then gravity took hold and she felt it tug her down, the wind ripping through her hair as she fell. Just as the hot air belched upwards and hit her harder than an angry Kryptonian. Only just remembering herself in time, she tugged on the ripcord of her chute, even as she struggled for breath and tried not to panic at the fact that this might literally have been the stupidest and most crazy thing she’d ever done. Which was saying a hell of a lot considering a lot of what she’d done. Including diving backwards off the balcony of the DEO and hoping and praying that Supergirl would get there in time to avoid her becoming a nasty smear on the sidewalk below.

But Supergirl wasn’t here now, Alex was on her own and… she was rising? 

Daring to open her eyes, which she didn’t even realise she’d closed until she opened them again, she found herself being propelled upwards, the parachute becoming something of a personalised hot air balloon that carried her up and up and up. She let out a triumphant cry of joy, even as down below, Maggie whooped and hollered as well. 

Even Eddie was staring down in awe at what he was seeing. 

Indeed, it was quite surreal to be wearing a parachute and going upwards. Alex’s mind couldn’t quite catch up to the logic of it all. She watched the rocky face of the volcano’s inner wall pass by, a bit surprised this was working no matter what she had said to Maggie. Optimism had just about won out when her chute shook and began to collapse.

“What the—” She tamped down the panic, her mind racing to find the problem and the solution. The first came faster than the second. “Fucking asshole.” A vaguely man-shaped lump rested on the top of her chute as Alex struggled to keep it centered in the crater. And struggle she did. Between the added weight, the loss of hot air, and the misshapen parachute, she was going off course and rising more slowly. Alex twisted and tugged on the handles, but all she could do was delay the inevitable as the craggy surface came closer, closer, closer…

The sound of a parachute tearing was one you wouldn’t soon forget, especially when it was the chute suspending you over a pit of bubbling lava. Eddie, the asshole, had managed to crash them both into the volcano and ruin Alex’s chute. She found herself struggling to cling to the rocky crevices while also trying to free herself from the parachute as what had once been her saviour quickly began to twist and drag her down.

“You fucking son of a bitch!” Alex switched hands as she shook the parachute off her other shoulder and down her legs. “When I catch you—”

Eddie’s wide-eyed stare as he looked down at Alex proved she didn’t need to finish that sentence. The implication was clear, and he began to climb at a more rapid pace, trying to escape her and the lava below.

Alex gritted her teeth, kicked off the last of the parachute, and sent it dropping back down towards the lava below. Then, with a steely determination in her eyes, she set off after Eddie. Giving herself a target to aim for also gave her a distraction to take her mind off the fact that she could literally die at any second. One wrong move, one slip of a hand or a foot and she was gone. But with her eyes locked on Eddie’s retreating form as he scrambled higher and higher, these thoughts never even entered her mind.

The same hot air that had previously lifted Alex up now made her grip moist and precarious. Sweat ran down her body and pooled on her palms. She even paused on occasion to shake a hand, droplets flying away at the gesture. Still, Alex was making progress on Eddie who seemed to be having an even harder time. She had to give credit to the game for taking her physical condition into account. By the time they neared the top, she was close enough to grab him by the ankle and yank him down, and it was tempting. She was only in this situation, struggling and straining, digital muscles actually aching, because of his dumbassery. Still, she was the better woman, so she pulled herself up alongside Eddie, taking a tiny bit of pleasure from the look of fear in his eyes as he saw her there, but kept her hands to herself.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” he begged. “I was only trying to—”

“Shut up.” Alex grunted and pulled herself up, scrambling as her right foot slipped, and she had to kick out to quickly find another perch. “You don’t want to tempt me right now, so just shut up.”

That was apparently warning enough because Eddie did, and almost as one, they crested the top of the volcano. The triumph was short lived though, for as soon as Alex tossed one of her legs over, the entire volcano rumbled, as if trying to shake them loose.

“What the fuck!?”

“It does that.” Eddie clung to the surface, the whites showing all around his eyes even as he slipped and had to pull himself back into place. “It doesn’t like it when you try to climb out.”

“And you couldn’t have mentioned that earlier!?” Alex added a ‘dumb fuck’ under her breath, but the sentiment was clear, especially when it shook again. “Is it getting worse, or am I just tired?”

“Both.” He met Alex’s gaze, and she was sure she could see her own fear reflected there. “It will keep getting worse. We have to—”

The volcano shook again, and Eddie was right about one thing. It did get worse. This time, the shaking was harder and lasted longer. Alex gritted her teeth, laying across the lip of the volcano, trying not to be tossed into the lava or the jagged rocks perhaps a hundred feet below. As choices of death went, neither of them was Alex’s preferred ‘old age in bed with her wife and surrounded by her kids and grandkids’ option. So she clung tightly, her mind racing for something, anything, to save herself… but it wasn’t going to be her that needed saving.

The next tremor would have put a bucking bronco to shame. Alex saw Eddie’s lower half go skyward even as she gripped the rocks tightly, ignoring the pain of her jaw connecting with the rocks. When he came down, both legs were inside the volcano, and he torqued, pulling his whole body toward the lava below. Only his perilous grip on the lip saved him for the moment.

“Take my hand,” Alex said as she extended her grip to him.

But Eddie just shook his head. “If I let go, I’ll fall.”

“If you don’t let go, you’ll fall. Take my damn hand!”

“I can’t!”

“God damn it, Eddie, take my fucking hand. I won’t let you—”

Then the volcano shook again.

“No!” Alex stared into Eddie’s eyes as his form retreated, sliding down the jagged rocks of the volcano’s interior toward the lava below. It felt like slow motion. For all she knew, given that they were in a video game, it might have actually been slow motion. Alex had seen people die before. She’d held injured agents, tried to give emergency medical aid, but this was different. His scream echoed in her mind long after he disappeared into the lava below, and she squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could will the sight and sound away but knowing she’d add it to the ever growing nightmare of people she had failed to save.

“Danvers.”

Alex’s own name echoed in her head, distant, reminiscent of better times. As the volcano shook even more angrily, and she dug bloodied hands into the surface while she struggled to keep her toes tucked under an outcrop, she was having a hard time thinking of a worse time. Even jumping off the building during the Daxam invasion felt like a lark in comparison to this debacle.

“Danvers!”

It was louder this time, the voice was familiar and… Alex opened her eyes, hope rushing in even as a hint of a smile touched the corners of her mouth at the sight of Maggie’s rising form.

“Jump on me!”

“What?” Alex shook her head. Sure she wanted to live, but she wasn’t going to be Eddie. If she died, she wasn’t going to take anyone else with her. “No!”

“Damn it, Danvers!” With a look of fierce determination in her eyes, Maggie broke her gaze with Alex and stared up at the parachute. She seemed to be calculating something… because just as the chute itself crested the lip of the volcano, Maggie pulled on her handles, shifting its angle. It caused her to rush forward even as she rose, her body hurrying toward Alex at a speed that threatened to knock Alex off if she didn’t— 

As Maggie let go of one handle and reached out, Alex’s mind was made up for her. She pressed one foot against a precarious perch and lunged upward. There were several heart attack inducing moments of fear before her body connected with Maggie’s, their arms awkwardly wrapping around each other as Alex struggled for a better grip. She managed to lock her hands together around Maggie’s torso, as Maggie reached up, grabbing control of the parachute again, and steering them away from the rocks and toward the green forest to the west.

“I got you,” Maggie said, smiling down at Alex with those dimples and eyes like melted chocolate. “I got you.”

Alex swallowed hard and tried to ignore the fact that her face was smushed against Maggie’s ample cleavage. It was a definite improvement from clinging to the edge of a volcano with two options of certain death before her. Even if this was how she went out, things were looking up.

“Don’t let go, okay?”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Alex said.

Maggie’s responding chuckles, along with her steady heartbeat, were a salve to Alex’s soul. She closed her eyes again and held on, trying to ignore how high she was, and that she wasn’t actually wearing a chute. Trying to ignore that she was trapped in a killer video game. For now, she was going to enjoy the steady thrum, thrum, thrum of Maggie’s heart, the warmth of Maggie’s body which was soft and firm in all the right places. Even the gong, noting they’d passed into the next level, couldn’t disrupt her. That was until Maggie’s heart rate picked up.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.

“It’s fine. We uh… It’s fine.”

“Bullshit.” Alex squirmed a bit, struggling to maintain her grip. “We don’t lie to each other in here. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Maggie met her gaze with a slow nod. “I can see a landing pad, but we’re not going to clear the trees.”

“Fuck.”

She was right. The canopy of trees was coming up on them fast.

Too fast.

Alex knew they were on a collision course, coming in way too quickly for it to be a gentle landing, the trees too thick and dense for it to ever have been a gentle landing no matter how slow they were descending.

This was going to hurt, and all she could do was brace for the impact. Even as she did, she felt Maggie tensing as well and knew that the Detective had had exactly the same thought. They shared a brief look of concern as their eyes locked, and then Alex was buffeted to the side as they hit the tree tops and all of her concentration was suddenly pulled back to their situation at hand, and namely not letting go of the harness, no matter how hard she was smashed and swiped by stray branches and slammed into tree trunks. The sounds of cracking wood echoed around them like gunshots, splinters and leaves flying in all directions as they all but fell through the canopy now, desperately clinging to one another and hoping and praying by some small miracle that the ordeal would be over soon.

Something slapped Alex across the face and even as she could taste the bitter, metallic and far too realistic taste of blood in her mouth, her concentration slipped, and with it her grip on the harness. One minute she was clinging on to Maggie for dear life, the next she was falling ten feet. Twenty. Thirty. Something slammed into her side and a searing pain shot through her abdomen as she bounced off a thick overhanging branch then fell the final fifteen feet to the jungle floor below, landing in a heap, winded, bruised, battered and beaten, desperately fighting back the stars in her vision and trying to draw breath.

At least she was back on solid ground. That was some small comfort. But only a tiny one, considering she was still trapped in a video game that was doing its very best to try and kill her at every given moment.

Pain flared across her abdomen again and she tried to sit up to look, then gasped and very much wished she hadn’t, when a shard of wood at least two inches thick and twelve inches long, made its presence known, buried deep into her side like the blade of a dagger. It must have snapped from one of the branches as she’d fallen, and boy did it hurt like hell!

“Danvers? Hey Danvers! Little help over here?!” Maggie’s voice called out from somewhere, and Alex turned her head as much a she was able, to the right, to see Maggie dangling from one of the trees, the parachute and lines caught up in the branches and her legs kicking and flailing as she dangled ten feet or so off the ground.

Alex tried to call out in reply, but her voice failed her. Instead she took a deep breath and laid back for a moment, looking up at her health bar and trying to work out what percentage she had left. 

The alarming thing was, it was still dropping. Even as she lay here, not moving, not doing anything, the health bar was still dropping, further and further, almost touching the red, now definitely in the red, getting lower and lower and lower.

Her medical training kicked in and she grasped the splinter of wood with both hands, trying to get a good grip. The sooner she got it out and healed herself with a health potion or two, the better.

“Holy shit,” Maggie’s voice called out again. “Is that… are you…? Danvers talk to me, are you okay?”

Alex raised one hand briefly. “Just a sec! I need… I need…” Grasping the splinter again firmly with both hands, she tugged as hard as she could. At first it refused to give. And then all of a sudden, with a blinding flash of pain, the shard slid free and she threw it to one side, panting and gasping in ragged breaths from the exertion. Then her hand frantically scrabbled for the spot on her wrist to call up her inventory. There was one health potion left.

And it was out of her reach, right at the very top of the inventory!

She reached desperately for it, ignoring the excruciating pain. “Come on, come on, come— “ The health bar dropped away completely and she fell back to the jungle floor, death overcoming her as another life was lost.   
  
  



	5. Level 4 - Jungle Hijinx

Maggie stared down at the now empty spot where Alex had been. She waited for several heartstopping moments. Waited for Alex to reappear on the spot just like back at the bridge, but that didn’t happen. Her heart raced at one repeating thought. Alex wasn't coming back.

“No,” she whispered, at first unwilling to face that reality but then again, louder, “No, she’s just… She’s okay. Yeah, she’s okay.” That had been Alex’s second death, and if they understood the rules of the game properly, Alex had one left. Still, the question remained. Why hadn’t Alex respawned?

That seemed to be answered seconds later as the yowl from a cat, a large cat, filled the air and Maggie with panic. Alex had earlier surmised that if the place they died wasn’t safe, they’d respawn elsewhere. If she was right, and she seemed to be consistently accurate about all of this video game stuff, then Maggie didn’t need to worry about Alex, right now. She needed to worry about herself. She was currenlty a rather tempting human piñata in some jungle with predators around her, and that was not the way she wanted to go out.

“Oh, hell no.” 

It took Maggie a minute or two to pull herself free from where she was wrapped up in her own string. This is why you always carry a good knife when you jump. With her arm free, she was able to access her inventory and select the hunting knife. It made quick work of the line, and she was soon dangling freely on her right side.Then it was a matter of getting herself out of her harness and as close to the ground as possible before she dropped down which, thankfully, didn’t result in any new injuries.

Maggie cupped her hands to call out, but remembering the animal lurking nearby, instead looked around and said, “Danvers,” in a harsh whisper. “Alex, you out here somewhere?”

Silence was her only response, silence and a somehow threatening rustling from a nearby tree. Either way, it was enough to make Maggie pick a direction and head off into it. She had a vague recollection of the direction of the landing pad she’d seen from the sky. So with no other destination in mind, she headed off toward it.

The jungle was thick and difficult to navigate. Within a minute or two of setting out, she found herself sweating profusely. It was neither the oppressive heat of the volcano nor the frigid cold waters of the ice cave, so she supposed that she couldn’t complain. She just had no idea why, when someone could make a video game that let you experience any climate, the designer went out of their way to make it so inhospitable. It seemed purposeful, spiteful even. She might not know anything about video games, but Maggie knew crime, and this one felt like revenge.

With the feeling of being followed spurring her forward, Maggie made good time. It was tough going with thick vines hanging from trees and slowing her passage, but her size, once again, proved to be an advantage. She was able to slide through openings that she doubted Alex could have gotten through. Of course, that just made her think of Alex. With them separated, would she ever see the agent again? If she didn’t survive this on her own, that question was moot.

Off to her right, through the jungle’s cover, Maggie saw a flash of color. At first, she thought it might be some exotic bird, but as she moved to investigate, a subtle blue glow in the distance caught her gaze.

“Blue means clue.” She grinned to herself, grateful to have this gift here, at least, and set off toward her new destination.

It didn’t take her long to notice the vine cover becoming thinner, and soon after that, she broke free to a more open area. More importantly, off in the distance there seemed to be some kind of camp set up. Maybe it was other players, and maybe they could help her find Alex.

She was only three steps into the more open area when that cat yowl returned, this time much closer than before. Indeed, when she looked back, she saw just how close it was. With a threatening yellow glow, the panther’s eyes stared at her, and she had no doubt she looked like a tasty entree. Her hand went instinctively to the gun she usually wore strapped to her left side for a quick cross-draw, but she only met with shirt. That eye contact and motion was all it took to spur the big cat forward, and as soon as it moved, Maggie took off.

She ran toward the clearing, desperately slapping at her wrists, trying to get something to give her a weapon to protect herself. It was no good though. Maybe she should have practiced this a bit more when she wasn’t about to be mauled by a giant predator. She allowed herself a moment of humour, to think that she was missing out on a perfectly good joke about getting eaten by a kitty and how turn about was fair play, and then she felt air rush by her shoulder in what she was certain was a near swipe of a murder paw. 

Just when she thought she was out of options, she crossed some kind of barrier. There was a brief flash of blue and then an unholy ruckus behind her. It was loud enough to make Maggie glance back, and what she saw finally let her stop running. The black panther was slapping uselessly at the air, and every swipe of its paw resulted in a flash of blue. Whatever this place was, it was surrounded in a barrier that divided Maggie from the dangers in this place.

With a sigh of relief, she turned and after taking a moment to catch her breath, started further into the camp. It looked like your run of the mill campsite with a large fire in a stone ring in the very middle and logs set around it as rustic seating. Over to the left, strung between a few trees were some hammocks and one or two of them were occupied, whilst over to the right were three large canvas tents, all in various shades of olive green, yellow or brown and staked to the ground with large wooden pegs. Two of the tents had their flaps closed, but the third had the flaps open to reveal a couple of crude cots inside and a large leather trunk. It didn’t glow though, so it probably wasn’t a cache of anything useful.

A bit further on, set apart from the others was a fourth tent, this one a cream color with a wooden sign hammered into the ground outside. The sign glowed yellow, a color Maggie hadn’t seen before, so she ventured forth curiously. The various people in the camp didn’t even acknowledge her presence and just went about their day to day activities. As she reached the sign, she could see some words carved crudely into the wood. 

“Free cake,” she read aloud. “And a free bed? Well now, this is more like it.” She’d taken no more than two steps towards the tent, however, when a voice spoke from behind her. A very familiar voice. A very welcome voice.

“The cake is a lie.”

Turning rapidly on the spot, Maggie came face to face with a certain redheaded federal agent who was grinning back at her. 

“Alex!” Maggie rushed forward, barely noting Alex’s, ‘Oof,’ as they connected. She wrapped her arms around the other woman’s torso, squeezing fiercely. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe Alex had survived but… there’s a difference between faith and knowledge, and the knowledge of Alex Danvers’ continued survival was tangible and good, as tangible and good as the woman pressed against her. “I knew you were alive. I knew it.”

“Well, I wasn’t for a bit,” Alex said as she hugged Maggie back. “Unfortunately that little tumble in the jungle cost me another life. And this time it hurt. It _really_ hurt.”

“Yeah, I saw you die.” Maggie looked up at Alex, staring into rich, brown eyes, and became suddenly aware of her proximity. She released her grip and stepped away, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. She already missed the warmth of Alex pressed against her torso. It was a concerning thought, one she decided to ignore. “So, I almost got eaten by a kitty. Talk about irony, right? That’s almost the way I wanted to go out… almost.” She grinned over at Alex and tried to exude a casual air.

“I…” Alex shook her head with a chuckle. “I’m not even going to ask. Sounds like you’ve had an adventure of your own without me. But you must have done alright, seeing as you’re here now.” She motioned to the camp around them. “This is a resupply area. I’ve already grabbed some stuff, but you should too. There’s a stall just over there, with the coin above it like in the marketplace. You can sell the stuff that’s labelled ‘junk’ as well to get yourself some more coins. They have a much better selection here than back at that other stall.”

“Oh, cool, then I’ll just…” Maggie thumbed toward the stall in question and made her way over there. Just like in the marketplace, there was a menu and a list of items for sale. She scrolled through it, looking at the options as she made a mental checklist of anything that might be helpful. She could probably use a bigger weapon. After being chased by the panther, she wanted something with some real stopping power and… Her eyes widened at one option, and she hastily selected it. She looked at her coin total and saw she had enough to make another selection, something useful in this terrain. “Okay, anything else I should be getting? Does this place sell bug spray? I could go for some deet.”

“If you sell your junk, you could get a new outfit,” Alex joined Maggie, standing beside her and pointing to an area that said ‘sell’. “You don’t have to. The one I got has a bit more armour and enhances speed a little, which I thought would be pretty handy when trying to keep up with you. Plus after that last death, I need to be extra careful now.”

“Clothes shopping? Really?” Maggie went back to the menu. Most of the clothing choices were out of her price range, and a few, though offering more protection, had a negative number next to speed. She wasn’t about to give up that advantage. It’s likely the only thing that saved her against that panther. She was about to give up when a new option, one marked ‘Uncharted’, caught her eye. It offered a shoulder holster for her pistol and a belt sheath for her knife. She wouldn't have to put either away and would have 'quick draw’ added to both weapons. Now that sounded more like it. The fact that it offered bonus health points while in the jungle was the icing on the cake… so to speak.

She sold off some of the junk she had gotten along the way and exchanged it, with a portion of her remaining gold, for the outfit. She wasted no time in putting it on and pulling her knife and pistol from her inventory. Sliding the pistol into her shoulder holster, she already felt more secure, prepared for whatever was ahead of them. She patted the knife at her side as she looked briefly down at her beige cargo pants, knee length brown leather boots and orange t-shirt, the hint of a black undershirt also peeking out below the hem, before smiling up at Alex. “Well, what do you think?”

“Damn,” Alex blinked. “Very appropriate.” Her head tilted slowly up and down as she took in the outfit with a smile, then another nod. “It’s very true to the game, as well. I might have to start calling you Chloe from now on.”

“I don’t know what that means. Is that a good thing?”

“It’s an awesome thing,” Alex nodded. “Chloe Frazer is a badass. Actually, come to think of it, she has a sense of humour very much like yours. You’re not too dissimilar.”

“Cool. I’ll take it as a compliment then.” She reached up, fiddling with the leather cord necklace around her neck. Then her hand switched to fiddle with the small scarf wrapped tightly (but not too tightly) around her wrist instead. “I’m assuming we need to head back out there. What did you see while we were separated?”

“Uh… this place. I respawned just over there at the entrance.”

“Wow, must be nice. Okay, so I saw one panther out there, but there could be more. Are you ready to do this?”

“Hold on, let me just change quickly. And no judgements please? I got it for the speed and armour stats. That’s all.” Alex pulled up her own inventory, selected an item that said “Supergirl” and almost instantly her entire outfit changed into a black and blue variation of the much more well known alien superhero, complete with cape. It was also the ‘pants’ version that the Kryptonian had taken to wearing these days instead of her skirt ensemble from previous years.

Maggie’s gaze slid down Alex’s body in the now form fitting outfit. Unlike her earlier clothing choice, this left little to the imagination, though imagine Maggie did. She found her imagination such fertile ground that she turned away and headed for the barrier. This was a dangerous place, and she had to keep her attention on what really mattered: panthers, bears, snakes, and whatever else this place threw at them. 

“So, I have a theory on Supergirl,” Maggie said as much to distract her wandering thoughts as for any other reason. 

“You do?” Alex asked as they left the camp and started off down a dirt track that led back towards the thick canopy of the jungle. “Lots of people have theories, but that doesn’t mean they’re right.”

“Yeah, but they’re not a detective.” Maggie accessed her inventory and pulled out the machete she had just bought, chopping down a thick vine that blocked the trail. “See, I’ve been studying the Girl of Steel, watching where she shows up and who her associates are, and I have a theory.”

“Okay,” Alex nodded slowly, her voice lacking its earlier confidence. “Let’s hear it.”

“Okay, she’s obviously living in National City. That seems like a no brainer. She spends too much time there and shows up at the most opportune moment to live anywhere else. I don’t think she’s native to the city though.”

“Oh, why?”

“She only showed up a few years back, and we couldn’t even tie any unexplained heroics to her before that. I think whatever made her come out, it had something to do with that first plane she rescued.” When Alex tripped and collided with her, Maggie turned. “Hey you okay?”

“Yeah I… uh… rock.”

“Yeah, you need to be careful with your footing. Now where was I?”

“I think we were going to talk about some video game stuff.”

“Maybe later. You know, I tried to get the passenger list for the folks on that plane Supergirl saved, the first plane, but the airline wouldn’t share that without a warrant. I made a list of everyone who did interviews, and I’ve done some research on all of them in my spare time, trying to find a Supergirl link but…” Feeling an odd sense of absence, Maggie turned to find Alex had stopped several feet back. “Are you okay? You didn’t get bitten by some kind of poisonous jungle insect, did you?”

“What? No, I…” Alex shook her head, then pointed vaguely to her left at a tree. “Thought I saw… doesn’t matter. So, do you know where we’re going? Maybe we should check the map.”

“Oh, good idea.” As Alex pulled up the map, Maggie watched over the agent’s shoulder, but her mind kept going back to their discussion. “Lena Luthor.”

“What? Where?” Alex looked up sharply, her head turning left and right.

“I think Supergirl, in her civilian identity, knows Lena Luthor.” Maggie watched as an odd expression, something she would have described as emotional indigestion, crossed Alex’s face. “What, you think I’m wrong?”

“I think I’ve worked with Supergirl fairly regularly. I think I know her, and I also think she’s not the sort of person to be on first name terms with Lena Luthor. I think you’re way off on that one, and if you want to know who Supergirl really is, you should be looking at someone who steers as far from any of the Luthors as possible. Someone who learned from Superman’s mistake.” She shrugged. “That’s what I think.”

“You’ve worked with Supergirl?” Maggie asked, her detective sense tingling.

“Sure. She teams up with the FBI all the time.”

“Well, color me educated,” Maggie said as she chopped down another vine before looking back over her shoulder. “I thought she worked with a secret black ops government agency that deals with aliens and uses the FBI as a cover.” Maggie watched Alex’s mouth open and close, could practically see her brain trying to format an excuse, and that was enough confirmation for her. “Relax, Alex, I’ve never outed anyone in my life, and I’m not about to start now. You guys are fairly well known in the alien community. They have lots of different names for you guys, and no one seems to know who you really are, but they know you exist.”

“So much for covert ops,” Alex grumbled. “Our official name is the DEO - Department of Extranormal Operations. And yeah, we deal with aliens. The agency was founded to protect against alien threats, but these days we mostly protect the aliens against threats instead.”

“‘Under new management’ is what my ex called it.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Alex nodded. “My Director’s a good man. When he took over, he really turned things around for the department, for the better.”

“You guys are Supergirl approved now. That goes a long way in the opinions of most aliens. I do have one question for you though.”

Alex visibly winced. “Am I going to like it?”

“I honestly don’t expect an answer, but I have to ask.” Maggie pushed a smile onto her face. “Do you know who she really is?”

“Maggie I can’t—”

“Fair enough.” Maggie shrugged. “You can’t blame a girl for trying though, right?”

“You’re very trying,” Alex said, as she moved to walk past Maggie

As Alex reached out to grab a vine, a flash of red alerted Maggie to the danger. She didn’t hesitate at striking out just a few inches above Alex’s hand and cutting the green length in half.

Alex recoiled, pulling her hand into her torso as she took a step back. “What the fuck?”

Instead of explaining, Maggie picked up half of the large python she had just chopped down. “Maybe you and I should leave the Supergirl discussion until we get out of here.”

“Good idea. I’ll bring the alcohol, lots of it.”

“And I’ll bring the thumbscrews,” Maggie quipped as she turned, raised the machete above her head, and took a step forward.

Expecting some sort of witty or sarcastic reply in return from the Agent, she frowned and turned back when one wasn’t forthcoming. Alex was just standing in the middle of the path, her face a mask of confusion.

“What?” Maggie asked, backtracking a little. “What’s up?”

Alex didn’t answer. She didn’t even move. It was almost as though she was in some kind of trance-like state.

Maggie raised a hand and waved it in front of Alex’s face. “Hey, Danvers? Danvers!” She clicked her fingers, but this still garnered no response. Alex wasn’t even blinking. “Damn it Danvers, did you get bitten by a poisonous bug or something?”

Even as soon as she said it, Maggie felt the panic rising within her. “Shit, you haven’t, have you? Danvers, you’re on your last life! You’d better hang in there! Don’t you dare—"

Blinking rapidly as if waking from a dream, Alex startled and took a step back. “Whoa, hey, what?”

“Are you okay?” Maggie asked anxiously.

“Uh… yeah, I think so. Why?”

“Because you just scared the crap out of me! What the fuck happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex raised a hand to rub the back of her neck. “Everything went really dark all of a sudden, and I couldn't see or hear anything. It was really weird.”

“You’re telling me!” Maggie huffed, though she was more relieved than angry. “Don’t do that again.”

“I didn’t exactly do it on purpose,” Alex replied, shaking her head. “It must have been a game glitch or something. Like I’d temporarily lost connection.”

“Is that even possible?”

Alex shrugged.

Deciding that this was probably another of those things she wasn’t meant to understand, Maggie turned back to face the way they were meant to be heading and swung the machete, hacking through another set of vines that hung in a tangle, blocking their path. At times it was so thick she was forced to stop, grab a piece, and hack away at it to break through. Still, she was careful, keeping the python incident in mind, watching where she placed her hand and feet. As much as she wanted to get out of this sweat inducing jungle with - she smacked her neck. What kind of maniacal madman programmed mosquitoes into their video game? Was nothing holy? As much as she wanted to get out of here, slow and steady won the race. Given that the prize was most likely her life, Maggie had no intention of losing.

Maggie’s blade swung high, chopping through the coverage as she took another step forward. “We’re not going to have to fight any bears, are we?” Two more slices cleared the path for her and Alex to advance just a few more feet.

“Bears?” Alex glanced back over her shoulder, but just for a moment before returning to her duty of walking backwards (and much as the terrain would allow) and watching their backs with her handgun drawn. “What are you talking about?”

“Like in the Jungle Book. You know.” Maggie grinned to herself, already amused and grateful not to have to keep a straight face - as much as any part of her could be - while they made their way, as her back was to Alex.

Maggie heard the sigh and could have sworn she heard Alex roll her eyes. It was probably just wishful thinking, but then again, this game did have kick sound effects. “That was a children’s story. Bears aren’t in real jungles.”

“True,” Maggie said, stopping for a quick breather as she held one of the vines. She waited until Alex glanced in her direction again and winked. “But we’re not in a real jungle either.”

The look on Alex’s face was priceless, and with a hearty and silent self-congratulation, Maggie set back into motion, cutting her way through the dense overgrowth that blotted out most of the sun.

“Okay, I hate that you’re right, but if there are any murder-bears here, you’ve got dibs for bringing them up.”

“Did you just say, ‘murder-bears’?”

Alex nodded emphatically. “The one I faced wasn’t exactly Winnie the Pooh.”

“Okay, fair. I’ve got dibs on the murder-bears,” Maggie said, and it was. She had paid a heavier price in the past for her sense of humour… probably… no, definitely. Some girls just couldn’t take a joke. As she hacked through a particularly heavy bit of growth, a big piece of canopy fell away, and light began to stream through. “Hey, the vegetation is getting thinner. I think we’re breaking through.”

Indeed they were. It only took a few more forceful blows with her blade before the remaining wall of flora fell away like a dropped curtain, and Maggie stepped through into an opening. This new space was a breath of fresh air. Literally, it was a breath of fresh air after the oppressive heat of the jungle. Though it was hardly windy, a slight breeze tried to stir the hair that was plastered with sweat to Maggie’s face and neck. Each inhalation brought coolness and a fresh, clean smell she hadn’t missed until she found it again.

The sights were just as lovely if not better. A blue lagoon, clear and inviting, welcomed them to it. Maggie opened her mouth and smacked her lips, only now aware that she was parched. Whoever invented this place really was a sadist. At the back of the lagoon was a roaring waterfall, reflecting light on its path to fill the pool below. The mountain behind it was covered with life, green plants and a few smaller and less predatory looking animals, though Maggie gave nothing the benefit of the doubt at this point.

To one side of the waterfall, and rising high enough up to practically be lost in the haze above, was a temple. Made from white stone, it stood out starkly against the green and brown backdrop. Several pillars dove down, disappearing into the water below, and red flags on the top of each building fluttered in the breeze. The whole place was a magical oasis that suggested mystery, enchantment… and the very definition of beauty in its purest of forms, through nature itself.

Speaking of natural beauty, Maggie found her gaze wandering, seemingly of its own free will, over towards Alex, as the Agent did a slow circuit around the edge of the clearing, checking every shadow and behind every rock, securing the area in a systematic fashion that seemed to be second nature to her.

The black, extremely form fitting variation of Supergirl’s bodysuit already left very little to the imagination but it also highlighted every curve, every lean (virtual) muscle and movement. The cape annoyingly covered some of the Agent’s more appealing ‘assets’, but every now and then a light breeze would lift and flutter the cape in a gesture worthy of Supergirl herself, though Alex seemed completely oblivious to it. Maggie knew that back in the real world, Alex Danvers was not Supergirl… but Maggie had a sneaking suspicion that Alex was very much a hero in her own right, regardless.

Catching herself staring, Maggie turned away quickly just as Alex made her way back at last. “All clear.”

“That water looks cool,” Maggie noted, if only to give herself some sort of distraction from her previous train of thought, as she stared into the blue and enticing depths of the lagoon in front of them. 

“Yup.”

“Inviting.”

“Yup.”

“Exactly the kind of thing you'd want to dive into after the heat from this jungle,” Maggie finally finished as she stared up into Alex’s brown eyes, meeting a look that told her they were sharing the same thought here. “But if we go in there, we'll die, won't we?”

“Yup.”

“Motherfucker.” A sadist indeed. Maggie had it right before. “Okay, stick with me while I take a look to make sure there are no clues below the surface. You got my back?”

“Always,” Alex said, blinking quickly when Maggie smiled up at her. “I.. I.. I mean, yeah, I got you covered.”

A small peninsula of rocks jutted out toward the center of the water. It reflected in the sunlight, moist from the pounding waterfall and covered with moss. As safe passages went, this one wasn’t. It wouldn’t be more than a slip into the water as it sat just an inch or two above the surface, but the real question remained. What lurked below the water’s surface?

A sparkle caught her eye, and Maggie squinted toward the tip of the peninsula. “Hey, I think I see something. I’m going to go out there and check it out.”

“Whoa, wait, out there?” Alex gestured toward the center of the lagoon. “I’ve got two words for you,” she held up a finger as she said each one, “death trap.”

“I’ve got two for you: drama llama,” Maggie replied, mirroring Alex’s gesture. “I’ll be careful, okay, but what’s out there could be important. We could need it. I’m going to look.”

“Maggie I—”

“Nope, you’ve been out voted.”

“But,” Alex’s voice faltered before it picked up again, “how? There are two of us.”

“I’m going to assume math isn’t your strongpoint, Danvers.” With the machete back in it’s sheath, Maggie began to carefully edge her way out onto the rocky rise. If anything, it was even more slippery than it looked, and it took all of her considerable agility to find each safe spot for a foothold.

“Just, be careful,” Alex said, edging out just a little bit but scurrying back when the slick surface proved a deterrent. Still, she switched her pistol to her off hand and leaned, her right hand partially extended. “I’m right here, okay?”

“Yup.” Maggie took one and then another hesitant, sliding step forward. Her gaze didn’t stay on the rocks for long as she constantly scanned the water, looking for a sign of their next foe. When the twinkle for up ahead grew stronger, her gaze locked on it. Unfortunately, this pulled her attention from her steps, and her next one was less well-placed. Her left foot slid forward even as she shifted her weight to recover. Slick moss flew off, splashing against the water’s surface and quickly sliding below.

“Maggie!”

Maggie teetered on one foot for several heart-stopping moments before she spun her body back the way she came and leapt, landing safely and grabbing the outstretched hand of Alex. With considerable strength, she was pulled back onto dry land. Her free arm wrapped around Alex even as Alex’s other arm partially did the same, stopping with a bent elbow so the pistol didn’t collide with Maggie’s back. They stood like that and took quick breaths as both their hearts raced. Maybe a spill in the water would have been nothing, but in this place, that didn’t seem likely.

“I got you. I got you.” Alex held her close, nothing but their joined arms separating the press of their bodies. “That was scary.”

“You’re telling me? I thought I was in the soup.”

“Hey,” Alex pulled back until brown eyes stared into brown, “I told you I had your back.”

Despite the situation, Maggie grinned and flashed her dimples. “I’m pretty sure it’s my front you’ve got here.”

“Oh, I, I’m sorry I—”

“That wasn’t a complaint, Danvers.” And when Alex didn’t step away, merely gave her a shy smile in return, Maggie knew she had hit upon something. “Thanks for having my back. I’m pretty fond of it.”

“Yeah, me too. Not your back, specifically, your whole body.” Alex’s eyes got comically wide, much to Maggie’s amusement, and she tripped over her next words. “I mean all of you I like because... don’t die. I don’t want you to die.”

“Same.” Maggie’s heart rate had slowed, but it was still a touch fast, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with her latest near-death adventure. “I would take it as a personal insult if you were to die on my watch.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to insult you.”

“Good to hear.” Feeling unusually brave in things not involving literal life and death, Maggie opened her mouth to inquire further along this line of questioning when Alex’s gaze flicked away and behind her. Practically pushing past and away from Alex, Maggie scurried back further from the stony peninsula to land. “Fuck, what’s gonna kill us now?” she asked as she spun and pulled her machete from the sheath at her side.

“It’s just birds,” Alex replied as her gaze scanned the treeline.

“Yeah, but birds can kill you. Have you ever seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie?” When Alex met her gaze, Maggie nodded, gravely.

It wasn’t until Maggie broke, a smile spreading across her face, that Alex smiled back. “You’re weird, you know that? You make jokes at the most inopportune times.”

“I make jokes at the most opportune times too. We just haven’t had any of those.”

“Well, that’s true,” Alex admitted.

“Anyway, some girls like weird. Maybe I’m just trying to weed out the normal ones, the average girls, and find someone extraordinary.” Their gazes locked again, and another moment sat between them. It was on the edge of being _something_ if one of them just nudged it in the right direction. All Maggie had to do was say _something_ , say what she knew to be very true. In the short time she’d known Special Agent Alex Danvers, Alex had proven herself to be many things, but average was not one of those. 

But Maggie’s earlier daring, when the body of a certain redhead had been pressed so close to hers, had fled. You don’t use humour to deflect when you’re good at facing emotions head-on. “Hey, I’ll bet you all the gold in my inventory we need to go to that big temple over there.”

Just like that, the spell was broken, and Alex snorted. “Sucker’s bet.”

Together they made their way up the stone steps, though for once Alex’s much longer legs proved to be the advantage this time as the steps were steep and each step was huge. Up until now, Maggie’s shortness had been a gift. Now she was discovering why it was also listed as one of her weaknesses. 

When they reached the top and Alex heaved the huge golden door open, they were greeted with a long corridor of torches and bright blue glowing caches spaced out at intervals. Not seeing any red in the area, Maggie led the way and made short work of each cache. There was no gold in any of them but plenty of crafting materials for Alex, a few health tonics, ammunition for their various weapons, and even some food as well. Alex took the meats so that Maggie could have the vegetables and fruits, and whilst Maggie was stowing everything in her inventory, she couldn’t help but notice the concerned look becoming more and more prominent on Alex’s face.

After a moment of tense silence, Maggie couldn’t stand it any longer and stood back up, her arms folded across her chest. “Alright, spit it out. What’s wrong?”

“Sorry?” Alex looked up quickly from her own inventory.

“I asked what’s wrong. I know I haven’t known you that long, but I do know that look, and it means there’s something wrong. So out with it.”

“It’s nothing… probably,” Alex shook her head. Then sighed and motioned to the caches. “There’s a lot of stuff here. Most of the games I’ve played only give you stuff like this when it’s gearing you up for a boss level. And if we’re facing a boss, we could be coming to the end of the game— “ 

“Great! About time too. I can’t wait to get out of this nightmare.”

“Gee thanks.”

“Don’t get me wrong, the company has been amazing, but - and I never thought I’d say this - I miss the real world. Like _really_ miss it.”

“Getting there won’t be easy, though,” Alex shook her head as she closed down her inventory at last, tucking some of her hair back behind one ear.

Maggie closed down her own inventory as well and shrugged. “We’ve made it this far, right? You and me, we’re a team, Danvers.”

“Yeah, we are,” a grin split across Alex’s face and she nodded. “Okay, let’s do this.”

“There’s nothing else here now, so we might as well keep going. That way?” Maggie pointed to another set of golden doors just ahead. For lack of a better idea, she and Alex took a handle each and tugged them open to reveal another long corridor beyond, this one lined with flaming torches but nothing else. No caches… but no red warnings of traps either.

“Something’s wrong,” Alex shook her head suddenly. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

### “Congratulations. That means you’re paying attention.” Maggie grinned, but Alex didn’t smile this time. She was still studying the corridor ahead of them, a look of deep uncertainty lining her soft, gentle features.

“I’ve seen the Indiana Jones films enough times to know a boobytrapped hallway when I see one.”

Maggie forcefully held back a chuckle at the fact that Alex had said ‘booby’ then covered it as a cough before clearing her throat. “Well I don’t see anything glowing red, so it must be okay. Red is dead, remember? And there isn’t any, so it’s got to be okay.”

“Has it?” Still Alex didn’t move. Her eyes were roaming the whole area, looking for… well Maggie wasn’t even sure what she was looking for. There was literally nothing there.

“Look, there’s no red, I promise you,” Maggie took a confident step forward, only to realise her mistake too late.

The tile beneath her foot dipped and sank slightly, there was a soft whistling noise and something sharp pierced the side of her neck. She quickly raised a hand and pulled out what looked like a dart with a red feather tip. “Son of a— “ 

The darkness descended on her again, just like after the snake bite. There was no pain this time. Whatever toxin had been in the dart was fast. Too fast. It was over before her mind had truly registered what had even happened.

And then she was standing back in the hallway, behind Alex who seemed to be in a state of shock.

“For fuck’s sake,” Maggie grumbled, causing Alex to turn.

“I think you just got— “

“Poisoned?” Maggie finished with a sigh. “Yeah, I know. Been there, done that, got the tombstone. I don’t get it though, there’s literally no red. At all. Anywhere.”

“I won’t say I told you so,” Alex smirked.

“You might as well. I can see you’re dying to,” Maggie scowled.

“Well, I did say something felt off. I think this is perhaps a curveball. Games do that sometimes.They lull the player into a false sense of security then throw in a surprise like this. That corridor is lined with traps, and they’re deliberately blocked from your detecto-vision.”

“My what?”

“Yeah I just realised how stupid it sounds. I’m not saying it again,” Alex groaned, her cheeks coloring pink. 

“Awww, it’s cute,” Maggie grinned. “But no, my _detecto-vision_ isn’t showing anything. So you think it’s deliberately not working in this level? Well, that sucks. Now how are we meant to get across to that blue thing?”

“What blue thing?” Alex asked.

“The one… that wasn’t glowing just a moment ago,” Maggie realised as she pointed to a blue glow that had only just appeared.

“It could be a switch to disable the traps,” Alex was biting her lip as she edged a little closer.

“Danvers, careful!”

To Maggie’s relief, Alex stopped, but then she glanced up to a wooden beam above her head. “I know how we get past this deathtrap.”

“Ho—” Maggie started, and then quickly changed mid sentence to say instead “Whoa what the hell are you doing?”

Alex had taken a short run up at one of the walls, jumped up and kicked off it, then grabbed the beam and was even now pulling herself up.

“For fuck’s sake be careful! You’re on your last life, remember?!” Even as she said it, Maggie glanced down at her own wrist and saw two violent crosses on her own wrist now, a stark reminder of her own mortality within the game now as well. This was literally life or death stuff, and Alex was taking her life into her own hands by doing… well, okay what she was doing was impressive, but it was still reckless.

By now the agent had pulled herself up to stand on the beam. From the ground, it didn’t look like there was enough room, but even when standing, Alex still had plenty of head room to spare. She balanced along the beam like a world class tightrope walker, stopped about half way along and turned, looking for her next target.

Maggie’s heart leapt into her throat as Alex jumped, arms outstretched and grabbed onto a bit of rope, swinging like a verified Jungle Jane over to a small ledge, not big enough for her to stand on, but big enough for her to grab with both hands at least and bring her legs up against the wall. Glancing back over her shoulder, she spotted her next… whatever the hell you would call it. Maggie didn’t even know if there was a gaming term for it, but she almost couldn’t watch. This was too much.

“For fuck’s sake, Danvers,” she muttered under her breath again. 

As Alex kicked off from the wall and jumped backwards, somehow managing to turn mid air, She grabbed onto another beam. But then one of her hands slipped, and she dangled perilously by one arm, her legs flailing slightly, as she glanced down at the floor below her.

“Alex!” Maggie cried, starting to rush forward, only to remember herself just in time. Getting herself killed wasn’t going to help Alex. But then neither was standing around here watching, yet what else could she do?

After a few tense, nail biting moments, Alex managed to grab the beam with her other hand and once again pull herself up. “I’m good!” she called back, standing atop the beam and wiping her palms on her pants. “I’m good. What did you want?”

“What do you mean ‘what do I want?’ You to stop being suicidal, is one thing!”

“No, I meant why did you call my name? You almost made me miss the beam.”

Maggie frowned. “Uh, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?” Now Alex was frowning as well. “I could have sworn I heard you say my name.”

“Yeah, right before you almost fell to your doom, sure.”

“No, before that. Just as I jumped, I heard my name. It put me off, and I misjudged the gap.”

“Sure, blame your suicidal tendencies on the voices in your head. That makes you seem much more sane, Danvers.”

“It wasn’t— Look, just don’t distract me again. I’m almost through this.”

After a few more moments to survey the last quarter of this aerial gauntlet that she had to get through, Alex set off once more, leaping and grabbing an overhead pole that looked almost like a piece of scaffolding, protruding from the wall. It was far too narrow for her to stand on, but it seemed that Alex had no intention of doing that as almost as soon as her hand had closed around the bar, she was off again. She was swinging to the next pole along, and then the next, like a set of monkey bars, her legs kicking to give herself the rhythm she needed to get from one to the next.

One final rope that she grabbed and used to swing out to the other side, and Alex was landing elegantly in a crouch on the far side.

Then, and only then did Maggie allow herself to finally breathe. Especially when Alex stood up and reached for the blue glow, which turned out to be a lever (of course it was a lever). If Maggie never saw another lever, it would be too soon.

There was a loud grating sound and then a metallic clang as all of a sudden an array of bright red tiles lit up along the length of the corridor. There was absolutely no way in hell anyone would have been able to cross that by simply hoping for the best.

“Did it work?” Alex called back as she stood with her hands on her hips.

“Stop power posing! It’s very off putting!” Maggie retorted as she carefully picked her own way past the chessboard of red, though she was admittedly having a much easier time of it than Alex had had.

Not that the agent looked like she minded, however. As she watched Maggie working her way across now, she was beaming proudly, no doubt pleased with herself.

When Maggie reached the other side, she took a moment to take stock of the situation. “Okay, so I’m guessing it’s that way.” Leading down to yet another set of golden doors was a short staircase. 

As they started down the stairs, these ones much easier to go down than the ones leading to the temple had been to go up, Alex turned to Maggie. “Huh? What was that?”

“What was what?” Maggie raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sure I heard my name again,” Alex rubbed one ear. “This place is starting to get to me now.”

“You and me both,” Maggie agreed as she drew her gun, so glad she now had a shoulder holster for quickdraw actions. Then she reached her free hand out for the door. “So, behind door number one we have…”

With a flourish, she pulled open the door, then peered in, and her face fell. “Two dudes and another two doors. What gives?”

Indeed, on the other side of the door was another chamber illuminated by numerous torches. The torches cast a golden glow throughout the room, which had not one, but two sets of doors at the far end – one a large, golden and glittering archway, carved with intricate detail, the other a plain wooden door. Beside each door was a guard, and one of them held out a scroll of parchment as they drew nearer.

Maggie, not seeing any red (but knowing that meant jack in this level, apparently) very slowly, cautiously took the scroll and unrolled it to reveal what she assumed to be a riddle of sorts, which she read aloud for them both.

“There are two doors and a guard for each door. One door leads to **life** and the other leads to **death** . You have only **one** question to ask and you can only ask **one** guard. One of the guards always tells the **truth** and the other always **lies**. What question would you ask to find out which door is the door to life?”

Alex opened her mouth to say something, but Maggie grabbed her arm quickly and dragged her away, pressing a finger to her lips. “Be careful!” She hissed. “One question only!”

“But I wasn’t going to ask THEM a question,” Alex hissed back. Maggie raised an eyebrow.

“Were you going to ask a question?”

“Well….yes.”

“Within earshot of the guards?”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t talking to them.”

“Doesn’t matter. They might have assumed that was our one question. I get the feeling whoever made this game isn’t very ‘generous’ with their terms and conditions.”

Alex opened her mouth again, then closed it and nodded instead. “Okay, good point. So… can I see the riddle again?”

Maggie handed over the parchment, watched as Alex read it a couple of times and then groaned. “We’re never getting out of here, are we. This is impossible!”

Even Maggie had to admit she was struggling to see an answer to this one. If they asked one of the guards which door to go through, how could they be sure he’d be telling them the truth, and not a lie? Unless… 

“Hold on,” Maggie muttered, kneeling down and using a finger to draw two door shapes in the dirt. Then she knelt and pondered over them both for a long time, muttering quietly to herself and pointing to each of the doors in turn. Alex stood over her, quietly watching for a time. At last, Maggie stood up again and dusted herself down, kicking a foot over the drawings to erase them in the dirt. “Well… here goes nothing. Just in case I’m wrong, it’s been a pleasure knowing you, Danvers.”

“Uh… likewise. But why are you saying that? Do you know the answer?”

“I think so. But I can’t be absolutely certain.”

“Oh,” Alex nodded. And just like that Alex fell into step beside Maggie, taking her hand, not even questioning her but instead just choosing to trust her. They’d gotten this far together after all. They were so close to the end. Their lives literally depended on one another for their very survival, so Maggie had no qualms at all with holding Alex’s hand, and even gave it an encouraging squeeze, which garnered a small smile from the redhead. 

“Pick a guard,” Maggie whispered quietly after a moment, and Alex had to lean closer to hear. Then she ground in her heels and jerked them both to a stop. 

“Wait, what?! I thought you said you knew the answer?!”

“I do,” Maggie reassured her, tugging on her hand again. But Alex refused to budge. “Look Danvers, we can only ask one guard. But it doesn’t matter which one, because their answer will be the same.”

“How? One lies, one doesn’t!”

“Alex,” Maggie turned and took both of the agent’s hands in both of hers, her eyes pleading. “Please trust me?”

Alex took a deep breath, looked into her eyes… and nodded. “Of course.” Then she looked to the two guards, closed her eyes and pointed. “That one.”

They walked forwards to the guard beside the plain wooden door, and Maggie fixed him with what she hoped was one of her ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ looks. "If I were to ask the other guard which door leads to life, what would he say?"

The guard smiled, but didn’t say a word. Instead he pointed at the elaborate golden door.

Maggie smiled as well, and nodded. “Thank you.” Then she reached forward and took hold of the handle of the wooden door.

They stepped through into the passageway beyond, which was lit with more flaming torches, and a single inscription on the wall said “You’re smarter than you look.”

Hurrying away from the guards and their doors, the two of them didn’t speak again for a good five minutes, as they navigated their way through a maze of further corridors. At last, they stopped, and Alex turned to her.

“How did you know that was the right door?”

“Let’s call them Guard A and Guard B. Guard A tells the truth, so knows that Guard B would lie. So Guard A tells the truth and points to the door that leads to death. Guard B lies and knows that Guard A would tell the truth. So he lies and points to the door that leads to death. Regardless of which guard you asked the question to, they’d both point to the death door.”

Alex blinked several times then grinned. “Now I know why you’re a detective.” Her eyes turned away and she pointed. “Hey, that’s new.”

Indeed there was yet another door waiting for them, but this time the sign above it read “Next Level.”

“We’re going through there, right?” Maggie asked.

When she was met with only silence, she turned… and then completed a full 360 degree turn, a cold feeling of panic washing over her. “Alex? ALEX?!” 

But Alex Danvers was gone, and Maggie was suddenly very alone.


	6. Game Paused

Alex gasped, lunging up into a sitting position, dazed and confused. What the hell was going on? This wasn’t the temple. Where was Maggie? No, more to the point, where was  _ she _ ?! One minute she and Maggie had been discussing the guards, the riddle, and the door that apparently led to the next level. 

And the next?

Was she back in the real world?

Two hands fumbled about at her head, and it took her several long, tense moments for her to realise that she wasn’t wearing the VR headset anymore.

Then several seconds after  _ that _ to realise she wasn’t even in her apartment any more. She wasn’t in the game - a quick glance at her perfectly unblemished and tattoo-free skin on her wrists confirmed as much, but seriously, where the hell was she?

Something came at her suddenly from the side, just a blur of motion, and before she could even think to react, she was engulfed, her instincts screaming at her to fight and kick and claw her way to freedom from… Supergirl?!

“I’m so glad you’re alright!” Her sister’s voice came from somewhere, but Alex was still struggling to breathe, and stars were starting to dance across her vision. “You scared us, Alex!”

“Ow!” Alex finally managed to gasp out, as she frantically patted Supergirl’s shoulder, trying to get her attention. “Ow! Let-ow-go!”

“Oh!” Supergirl stepped back suddenly, a sheepish grin on her face. “Oops. Sorry.”

“The fuck?” Alex groaned as she looked all about at last. “Is this… this is the DEO? I’d know this med bay anywhere. How did I get here?”

“Uh, long story.” Another voice piped up from somewhere else, and turning to glance over her shoulder, she saw Winn sitting in a nearby chair, her laptop in his lap. “A very long, very technical story about coding and portable hotspots and— “ 

“Forget I asked,” Alex groaned again, rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hands. 

“But it’s okay because you’re back now. We saved you,” Supergirl beamed proudly. “I mean it was touch and go for a bit when I first tried, but we got there in the end, and now you’re safe. You should really rest though. You’ve— “

“Got to go back in,” Alex was looking all about frantically. “The headset, where is it? I need to go back in!”

“Hey, hey, Alex, it’s okay. You’re safe now. You don’t need to go anywhere,” Supergirl frowned, taking her sister by the shoulders and looking her right in the eye. “You’re safe. We got you out.”

“She’s not!” Alex snapped, swatting Supergirl’s hands away, jumping from the bed to her feet, then swaying unsteadily for a moment, her leg muscles - no, make that her entire body - screaming in protest after having been laid down for so long. Which only raised the question of how long she’d actually been in the game for.

Supergirl leapt forward to grab her again and help steady her, but once again, she swatted her sister’s hands away.

“Who’s not, Alex?” Supergirl asked gently.

“Mag—I mean Detective Sawyer,” Alex was heading for the door already, now that her visual sweep of the room had not turned up a VR headset. “She’s trapped in there. So is the mystery guy who we still haven’t found yet. And who knows how many unsuspecting beta players too! I have to get back to them… I have to get back to her. Now where is it?!”

“Where’s what?” Supergirl placed herself in front of Alex, stopping her dead in her tracks.

“The VR headset. I need it to get back into the game. Where is it?”

“J’onn took it to be locked away for safety until we could figure out what was going on. Once we could safely wake you up without causing you to convulse again.”

Alex had been trying to sidestep around the superhero, but paused. “When I what?”

“When you didn’t show up for work this morning, J’onn sent me to find you. We thought you might be ill or have a hangover or something. I got to your place and found you playing that game, but when I tried to wake you up, nothing seemed to work. So I pulled the headset off,” Supergirl shrugged. “I figured you’d snap at me then realise the time and that you’d maybe gotten carried away playing the game like you did with Breath of the Wild—" 

“That was one time!” Alex exclaimed, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand, even as she made a rolling motion with the other, urging Supergirl to continue.

“Yeah, well, it turns out it wasn’t as simple as that. As soon as I took the headset off, you started to have convulsions. I was so scared, Alex. So scared. So I replaced the headset quickly, and the convulsions stopped. Then I called J’onn and Winn for help. Winn did his tech stuff and we were able to get you and your laptop back to the DEO without interrupting the game any more. J’onn tried to get inside your mind to see what was going on, but the VR made it too difficult for him. He could only see brief glimpses - something about a volcano and an ice cave or something? He couldn’t get through to talk to you either, though he tried a few times before he finally had to give up and admit defeat.”

Alex breathed out slowly. “They weren’t glitches,” she realised at last. “That was you guys trying to get me out. I knew I wasn’t going mad. I knew it!”

“Look, let’s get you home so you can rest. Then in the morning you can—" 

“No,” Alex dug her heels in firmly as Supergirl tried to lead her away.

“Alex?”

“I said no, Kara!” Alex snapped. “People are still trapped in that game! I promised I would help them, and I damned well mean to do that. Too many people have died already. Too many.”

Supergirl frowned, but she was nodding. “I’ll go in instead. We just got you back, and you’re exhausted. I’ll get your VR gear and go in, okay?”

“That won’t work.” When both women turned on him, Winn backed away slightly. “The gear is attuned to each person, and it takes a long time to set up a profile. I could clear Alex’s data from the gear—”

“Don’t you dare!”

Winn held up both hands at Alex’s anger. “But, it would still take a long time to get you loaded, Kara, and you’d have to start at the beginning. It would take you… I have no idea how long it would take you to get to the point where Alex was. Time is important, right?”

“Critical,” Alex said. “She could be in danger right now, and she only has one life left.”

Supergirl and Winn exchanged an unintelligible look, but then her sister nodded. “I’ll get J’onn. You’re going to have to convince him.”

“Then I will,” Alex said, arms folded across her chest. “We need to hurry, though.”

“On it.” And then Supergirl was gone, only a gust of wind left behind in her wake.

“Winn,” Alex spoke once her sister had left. “How long did it take you guys to pull me from the game? And if I was to tell you who she is, could you pull her from the game in the same way? We wouldn’t even need to finish the game, right? Just hang on in there until you could get her out?”

“Uh, yeah.” Winn rubbed the back of his neck and refused to meet her eyes. “Since I’ve already done it once, it probably wouldn’t take me  _ quite _ so long to pull someone out. You said her name is Detective Sawyer? Is she local?”

Instead of answering him, Alex stepped inside his comfort zone. “I asked you how long it took to pull me out, Schott.”

Winn gulped. “Well, first I had to hack the game, but I’m in now, so that helps. The really tough part was removing you from the AI’s neural network. J’onn helped a lot there, and we were able to reconfigure a new—”

“How long?” Alex leaned in, her patience at its end.

He nodded. “Like four hours since I’m already hacked into the game… maybe five. We need to find her first. What’s her full name?”

“Fuck.” Alex slumped and leaned against the wall. “She’s Detective Maggie Sawyer of the NCPD, and she doesn’t have four hours. Winn, I need to get back in there.”

“Sorry. I’ll find her though. I can’t put you back in without— J’onn! Hey, there’s J’onn. I’ll find your detective.”

“She’s not—” But Winn had already headed back to his work station, and it wasn’t a point worth arguing. She had a bigger argument on hand now. “J’onn, I need to get back in there.”

“So I heard.” He rubbed his chin as he seemed to look for something in her face. “You know it was a lot of work to pull you out of there, don’t you?”

“And I appreciate that, but a life…  _ lives _ are on the line. There are people trapped in that game, at least two that I know are in the main game and in danger. I can’t abandon them.”

“Alex I—”

“Please, J’onn. I need to get back in there. Please?” Alex wasn’t usually a ‘please’ kind of person let alone a double please, but desperate times called for desperate measures. It seemed to be working too. J’onn was clearly swaying in his thought process. “Winn says it will take hours to get someone out and that’s after you find them.”

“Found her!” Winn quipped from the side.

Alex barely controlled her eye roll. “J’onn, people are going to die if I don’t go back in.”

“You could die if you do,” Supergirl said.

“You’d go back in.” Alex watched as her sister moved to argue, perhaps to say it was different since Kara was Supergirl, but in the end, Supergirl just nodded. “We don’t leave people behind, Kar.”

“I hate that you’re right, but you’re right. She’s right, J’onn.”

“I’ve noticed that trend with Alex.” He grabbed both of her shoulders and stared at her, intently. “I don’t want to lose you to some video game.”

“You won’t.” Even as Alex said it, she knew it wasn’t a promise she could necessarily keep.

Still, J’onn nodded. “I want to check you out before you go back in there. I need to make sure this is totally your decision. When you were in the game, there was a lot of interference. Your mind was largely unreadable. I want to make sure this is really you.”

“Do it.” Alex shrugged. “I have no secrets from you, J’onn. Scan away.”

J’onn cradled her face in his hands and nodded. It didn’t even feel like anything, but Alex had seen him enter people’s minds, her own included, before. It was more like he was looking through her, inside of her, literally reading inside her mind. The first time he did it, at least that she knew he did it, it was nerve wracking. But just like flying with Kara, she now realized it was just sharing something special with her family from other planets. It took a lot of trust to do either without hesitation, and she was happy to show them that.

When J’onn pulled back, Alex was ready to jump in and ask if she was cleared, but when he asked, “Who’s Maggie?” she faltered.

“Maggie? Oh, that’s Detective Sawyer. She’s my… I guess she’s my partner in there. She’s counting on me.”

J’onn nodded. “I see that. She’s definitely made quite an impression on you.”

“What does that mean?” Supergirl asked.

But J’onn didn’t reply, instead he said, “Agent Schott, prepare the game for Alex's return. I’ll get her VR gear out of lockup. Alex, get to med bay. No arguments. I want you closely monitored the whole time. If your vitals drop off, we’re pulling you out.”

“Want me to watch her in the game?” As people looked at him, awaiting more information, Winn added. “I can’t go in myself, but I can use Alex’s signal to watch and communicate with her.”

“You can do that?” Alex asked. 

“Who’s your resident genius?” Winn grinned.

“Do it, Agent Schott. Everyone else, look smart. This is our new priority.” J’onn met Alex’s gaze again and nodded. “We have another rescue mission here, people. Let’s get moving.”

Alex took two steps before her sister gently grabbed her arm. “Hey, you know I’d go back in with you if I could. I’d go in for you.”

“Of course, you would. You’re everyone’s hero.” She allowed herself to be gently cradled in arms that could bend steel girders with ease. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”

“You better. I’m not losing you to some dumb video game.”

She pushed herself away, and Supergirl allowed her to step back. “I’m coming back. You can count on it.” This time, when she said it, she believed it.

Supergirl nodded, and she looked at least a little encouraged. “Come on, let’s get you back to medbay where we can monitor your vitals.”

“Can I ask a favor?”

“Anything. You know that.”

“Go find Maggie. Winn says he can locate her, but I trust you to protect her.”

“But you—”

“I’ll be fine, Kar.” Alex reached out and squeezed her sister’s hand as firmly as she could. “I’ve got an entire DEO and medical staff to watch after me. She needs you.  _ I _ need you to do this.”

“You can count on me.” But Supergirl paused instead of moving away. “Alex, who’s Maggie?”

“A friend, Kara. I met her in the game, and we’ve been working together. She’s just a friend.”

Supergirl nodded and headed over to Winn, likely grabbing Maggie’s address. As Alex watched her go, a little nagging voice in the back of her head questioned the truth of what she’d just told her sister. She didn’t have time for those kinds of thoughts, though. She had to get back into that game. Maggie… people… were counting on her. She just hoped she wasn’t going to be too late.

  
  



	7. Level 5 - Urban Warfare

Alex’s entire body jarred with a dull pain as she landed in a crouch, one knee and one fist pressed to the floor for stability. Glancing up and opening her eyes, she gasped, and a hand immediately raised, only to find that she wasn’t wearing her earpiece any more. “Uh, guys? Are you… you’re still reading me, right?”

_ “I’m here, Alex. The others have gone to find Detective Sawyer,” _ Winn’s voice echoed from somewhere and she breathed a sigh of relief, standing up and brushing her black pants down quickly, noting with some small relief that she was still sporting the black and blue Supergirl suit she’d been wearing when she was pulled from the game. A quick check over one shoulder confirmed it when her hands found the folds of a cape. That was a relief. It seemed that pulling her from the game hadn’t lost her any of her stuff.

She took a moment to survey her surroundings with a frown. To call this place a room was using the term very, very liberally. There were barely two and a half walls, whilst an entire corner segment and most of the front wall were little more than a gaping hole. All around the ‘room’ were chunks of what she assumed had once been the ceiling, considering how when she looked up, all she could see were the upper levels that were equally in states of complete destruction. 

It was little more than a shell of what had once been a building, whilst outside in the world beyond there was the sound of gunfire and the echoing booms of explosions. Some were closer than others, and one or two shook the ground beneath her feet, causing more rubble to fall around her and threatening to bring the flimsy remainder of the shell down around her completely.

Ducking her head, she dived through the large gaping hole in the wall as a large chunk of concrete fell in the spot where she’d been standing just seconds earlier. Landing in a forward roll that brought her up against the overturned carcass of a yellow school bus, Alex stared around at this new landscape with steadily growing horror, her hand once again darting to her ear even though there was nothing there.

“Where the hell have you spawned me?! This isn’t where I left the game! This is a warzone!”

_ “This seems to be the next level,” _ Winn’s voice came back to her, though she still had no idea where it was coming from.  _ “I jumped you to the next save point, seeing as you were pretty close to it anyway. Hang on, is that music I can hear?” _

“You get used to it,” Alex replied distractedly as a rocket propelled grenade exploded into a building across the way, making her flinch.

_ “Wait, I know that music. I recognise it. Why do I recognise it?” _

“Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

_ “Right! That was it. Huh, so whoever created this game apparently picked the music to go with each scene, right? Neat. That’s what you call attention to detail. I wonder if they have a pirate level?” _

“No, not neat! Stop fanboying over the homicidal maniac game creator and either help me or shut the fuck up and let me concentrate!” Alex grumbled as she tapped the inventory mark on her wrist, called up the now familiar hologram screen and selected a second outfit that she’d picked up from one of the chests in the temple. This one boasted an even higher increase in speed and armour than the one she was already wearing, so selecting it quickly, she watched in the reflection of a nearby shopfront (one of the very few that still had glass left in it) as the Supergirl suit was replaced by another black suit, this one very much like her DEO armour that Winn had made for her. It also had a hood instead of a cape, no ‘S’ logo on the front, but vibrant blue highlights and accents. It also felt much more padded and protected in places, clearly having built in armour significantly boosted her armour rating when she checked her ‘details’ menu. After this brief wardrobe change, she called her inventory back up and selected her assault rifle. There was a long, low whistle from Winn.

_ “The M16 A2 with M203 mod? You can kick some serious ass with that thing.” _

“That’s the plan.” Alex swiped away the inventory window, checked the rifle was fully loaded and then called up her map, studying the hologram pretty much confirmed her suspicions. She’d been dropped in the middle of a warzone. The objective marker was blinking at the far side of the map and to get there she would need to make her way through the city, from one side to the other. Simple enough in theory, but as a rocket exploded into the wall of a building across the street and brought another avalanche of crumbling brickwork down, she realised that nothing was ever as simple as it looked on these stupid maps.

This was going to be a fight for her life, literally. A quick glance down at her left wrist confirmed that she still only had one life left, so that was it. This was as close to real life as she was going to get. No second chances, no more respawns. She needed to survive, no matter what.

She also needed to find their mystery guy who was as trapped as they were, and she needed to find Maggie, assuming of course that Maggie was even still alive and hadn’t already used up her last — no, Alex shook that thought from her head quickly. She wasn’t even going to go down that route. 

“Okay, here goes…” she edged slowly towards the front of the bus that she had been taking shelter behind, and reached out tentatively, picking up a small fragment of glass, about palm sized, which she angled around the bus and used as a mirror to help her survey what was going on.

Five men, all armed to the teeth, geared in gray combat camo designed for urban warfare and all wearing flak jackets that looked like they would stop everything short of an RPG, were advancing on her position in a tight group formation. Two men on point, two taking side guards and one taking rear guard as they covered all angles simultaneously, there was absolutely no way she would be able to flank them. 

The lack of an avatar above their heads and the rather generic names that were little more than a hashtag and a designated number told Alex that they were NPCs. She needed to make the most of her element of surprise whilst she still had it, but even if she took out the front two, the others would scatter and take cover before she would be able to pick them off too. Not only that, but prolonged gunfire may draw other hostiles into the area as well. She needed to dispatch them all quickly and then move away from the area as fast as she could.

Setting the piece of glass down quietly by her feet, she glanced at the assault rifle in her hand for a moment, even as an idea dawned on her. The men were advancing and she didn’t have time to check her inventory for any grenades, but luckily she didn’t need to. The M203 modification on her rifle would do just fine. 

Checking again that it was loaded, she counted to three then stood up, stepped out quickly, took aim at the very centre of the group and squeezed the trigger gently. Not the trigger of the rifle, however. The trigger that was set just a little further up the grip. There was a hollow thud followed by a whooshing sound, like something being propelled down a tube, but Alex didn’t wait to see the devastation. She’d already ducked back behind the bus and was running for the rear of it, even as the ground shook with an explosion and there were several shouts and screams from the NPCs. 

The built-in grenade launcher of the rifle had served its purpose well, and as she ducked her head and broke cover around the back of the bus, rifle raised and ready, she could see that whilst three of the NPCs were clawing their way back to their feet, health bars flashing red above their heads, two others were lifeless on the floor beside a small crater. 

A quick tap-tap-tap and three headshots later, the remaining three joined their fellows on the ground and Alex sprinted for cover behind the burnt out shell of a people carrier, a bit further up.

_ “Dude!” _ Winn exclaimed in awe.  _ “Those late night sessions of COD have finally paid off! That was awesome!” _

“Is anyone else on this channel?” Alex growled as she crouched, pressing her back against the car.

_ “Nope, just you and me.” _

“Then let me make one thing crystal clear. If you **ever** tell anyone that you and I have a weekly game night every Wednesday, not only will I deny all knowledge of it, but I will also take your precious game controller and shove it so far up your— “ 

_ “Okay, okay! I get it! Mum’s the word! Sheesh! I don’t see what the big deal is though. So what if you play video games? There’s nothing wrong with it.” _

“Nothing wrong with video games?!” Alex noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and spun her rifle, firing off a burst of rounds into an NPC (she hoped it was an NPC but really didn’t have time to stop and check first) as he came at her from a side building. “I’m stuck inside a fucking video game that is trying to kill me! Literally!”

_ “Hey, you chose to go back in there. Speaking of, have you found your Detective yet? You called her Maggie, right? What’s your deal with her anyway?” _

Alex checked over the hood of the car to see that the coast was clear, chose her next cover quickly, and then stood up and sprinted for it. A line of bullets sprayed into the ground behind her, skimming dangerously close as they chased her across the street. She dived and rolled through the open doorway she’d spotted, then brought her rifle up again quickly, in case the building wasn’t empty. A quick visual check confirmed that this room, at least, was clear so she was able to turn quickly and take out the hostile who had been shooting at her and had then decided to follow her in through the doorway. She didn’t have time to line up a headshot, but luckily for her, he wasn’t wearing a flak jacket or any other sort of armour that she could see, so three hastily placed rounds to his chest would have to suffice. He fell where he’d stood, and she scrambled forward quickly to loot him, coming away with a health potion and a clip of ammo for her pistol. 

_ “Alex? You still there?” _

“Yeah,” she breathed. “Yeah I’m here. This would be so much easier if you could just tell me where each of these fuckers are hiding.”

_ “I can only see what you can see. Imagine a first person shooter game without any of the HUD and that’s pretty much what I’m seeing on my screen right now.” _

“Wait, you’re seeing through my eyes?”

_ “I know. Cool, right?” _

“Fucking creepy, more like.”

_ “Hey, I don’t make the rules. I just hack them. So, have you found her yet? Your Maggie person?” _

“No, not yet. She could be anywhere. Are you sure there’s no way to lock on to her position?”

_ “Like I said before, without an IP address— “ _

“A simple yes or no will do. Don’t get nerdy on me, I don’t have the time or the patience.”

_ “No.” _

“Great. Okay so I’m a Police Detective stuck in a warzone. Where would I go?”

_ “Hold on, I think I can pull up a copy of your map. Let’s see what we’ve got here.” _

After making sure the room was secure, Alex pulled up her own map to study it as well. It started moving and scrolling, zooming in of its own accord and she presumed that was Winn’s influence. 

_ “Okay, looks like there’s a drugstore half a block down from your current position. Would be a good place to stock up on health and other gear, probably. Here, I’ll mark it for you.” _

A small red dot appeared on the map. Alex made a quick mental note of where it was in relation to where she was now, then closed her map down and slowly advanced back towards the door, peering round it carefully. Further down the street, she could see a glowing red marker, similar to a flare, and assumed that was the marker Winn had placed for her. “Yeah, I see it. Okay, I’m going radio silent for a moment. There’s a lot of open ground to cover between here and there.”

_ “Good luck! I’ll check in with J’onn and Supergirl and see where they’re at.” _

Despite what she’d told Winn, however, Alex didn’t immediately head out into the street. Instead, she headed to the back of the room where a small set of service stairs led up to the next floor. What she needed was to get to higher ground so she could survey the surroundings clearly.

Four flights of stairs later, she slowly and carefully stepped out onto the roof, rifle raised and finger poised over the trigger, well aware that she was probably even more exposed up here than she would have been on the street below, but she needed the high ground to get the best view. 

Seeing no immediate danger ahead of her on the open roof, she stooped into a crouch and slowly made her way to the edge, then dropped to one knee and glanced down to the streets below. Men wearing urban camo were spread out everywhere, some clearly working together whilst others were clearly against one another as they continuously opened fire on each other from the various remnants of buildings up and down this particular stretch of the street.

There was no way she’d be able to make it safely to the red flare (that the NPCs were thankfully ignoring) without at least three or four of the men opening fire on her in return. She may have dodged one spray of bullets, but dodging five or six from all different directions would be impossible, even if she had a hundred lives to spare. Going back on the street was suicide.

So her eyes turned up to the buildings instead, and she tried to see if there was any way she might be able to traverse the rooftops and upper levels of the buildings. There might just be a way, if… maybe… She stood up to get a better view, just as a low throbbing sound caused her to freeze.

“Shit.”

She knew that sound, as it grew steadily louder and louder, getting closer and closer. And she was trapped out in the open with nowhere to go! Sure she had her rifle, but without cover to hide behind each time she had to reload, or even to give herself time to line up a shot, she was a sitting duck.

As the Black Hawk chopper crested the top of a nearby building, she didn’t wait to find out if it was actually a friendly one or not. Considering the rest of this game so far, she was willing to bet an entire year’s wages plus her DEO armour and her favorite gun on the fact that it wasn’t. So she took off across the roof she was on, running as if her very life depended on it, which at that moment in time, it very much did. As she ran, she stowed her rifle back in her inventory. It would only slow her down and get in her way at the moment, anyway.

_ “Hey, Alex I’m— what’s going on?” _

“That!” Alex risked a brief glance over her shoulder as the Black Hawk spun sideways in the air, the side door opened and a mounted machine gun opened fire, spraying the ground behind her with bullets that ripped and shredded into the concrete, far too close for comfort.

Turning to look back the way she was going, she picked up the pace, pushing herself to the very limits of her abilities, already glad she’d switched outfits to something with a speed bonus. She’d never have made it this far otherwise.

_ “Be careful!”  _ Winn yelped into her ear.

“What do you think I’m doing, Brainiac?!” She snapped, leaping a small concrete wall, dropping down onto the rooftop below and landing in a crouch, then scrambling back to her feet and picking up the pace again. 

The Black Hawk never stopped in its relentless hunt, circling round the rooftops to come at her from all angles, making it almost impossible for her to know where it was going to come from next.

_ “Hey, hey, on your left!” _

“What is?!” She gasped, even as she turned instinctively to the left. And then saw what he’d seen. Well, considering he was seeing what she was, then she’d seen it all along, too. Her mind just hadn’t registered it, until he pointed it out. “Is that—”

_ “Zip line!”  _

Alex skidded to a halt at the edge of the building and glanced down. It was indeed a zip line, conveniently placed to drop her on the far side of the street behind a large chunk of collapsed building. She couldn’t see what was on the other side of the building, but right now anything would be better than facing down a Black Hawk. Grabbing the handles of the pulley, she leaped off the roof and sped towards the ground at an alarming rate, the pulley giving out a high pitched screech as it zipped along the wire. 

Carried out across the street, her legs dangling a good thirty feet or so above the ground, she hoped and prayed that either nobody looked up, or if they did, she was moving too fast for them to get a good aim.

Although, speaking of too fast, shouldn’t she have started to slow down by now?

_ “Uh… that thing does have a brake, right?” _ Winn’s voice echoed her thoughts.

“Fuck this, I am not falling to my death again!” Alex tucked her legs up to clear the section of building, then when she was clear on the other side and about ten feet from the ground, she let go, dropped, landed in a roll and came up unharmed on the other side.

Mostly.

Her health had dipped into the yellow, and she felt a twinge in her ankle, but after consuming a health potion, she was right as rain once more. 

Taking a few moments to gather herself once more, she called up her inventory, then noted that there was now also a quickdraw symbol beside her pistol. That could be handy. Selecting it, she felt a slight change at her thigh and looking down, saw that a holster had appeared. Slotting the pistol into the holster, she immediately felt much more comfortable. Much like her old self at last. It was by no means the same as having her trusty Maldorian pistol with the enhanced and specialist bullets by her side, but at least she didn’t feel so bare now, either.

Once that was done, she took her rifle out once more, then edged to the side of the large lump of concrete that she was currently shielded behind. Another low rumble from somewhere had her duck back again, then peer carefully round again as this time a flatbed truck juddered and jerked to a halt on the road just feet away, letting out a loud hiss of its brakes. More men in camo were sitting or crouching on the flat trailer, armed to the teeth and keeping watch whilst two of them were setting something up in the very middle of the trailer itself, though she couldn’t see what.

With enemies all around, lining the streets and hiding in every alcove and side alley, not to mention the chopper that was still circling overhead, and now this truck, Alex really didn’t see how she could possibly advance any further through this level.

“Come on Alex, think… think…” she berated herself quietly as she stepped back into cover, leaned against the wall behind her and then let her head thud back against it. Immediately regretting that decision as a small shockwave of pain flashed across her skull, she raised a hand to rub the back of her head… and then it came to her. She could use the truck to safely get her past all of the obstacles in her way, whilst also hiding her from the chopper.

Of course, she’d need a distraction to get the men away from the truck for long enough that she could reach it unseen, but maybe that wouldn’t be as hard as she first thought. A quick glance down at the grenade launcher on her rifle, and her mind was made up. 

_ “So, what’s your plan now?” _

“Watch and learn, nerd. You can’t do this in Call of Duty.” She stepped quickly from cover, fired a grenade back down the street in the opposite direction she needed to go in, then jumped back into cover as it exploded, a couple of hundred feet away. 

There was a chorus of shouts, followed by the scrambling of several bodies as the soldiers all ran in that direction to investigate, leaving her a clear and direct path to the truck. 

Dropping to the floor as she reached it, she rolled underneath then looked about for suitable hand and footholds. The last thing she needed was to grab hold of a moving part, after all.

After a few moments of searching, she found the perfect places and lifted herself up, holding on tight just in time as the men returned, climbed up onto the truck, and it slowly roared to life then pulled away down the street, none of the men aboard any the wiser as to the stowaway now hiding right beneath them.

_ “Okay, I have to admit that is pretty epic, what you just did,” _ Winn chirped in her ear, clearly enjoying this all far too much.  _ “Though one question… how do you know how far you need to go? For all you know, that truck could just be going round in one big loop and you end up right back where you started.” _

“I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it,” Alex replied quietly, not wanting to raise her voice too loudly, just in case it was heard over the roar of the truck’s engine. Which was highly unlikely, but she really couldn’t afford to take any chances.

A few more minutes passed (Alex only knew this because she’d been counting the seconds in her head), when the truck started to slow, then came to a stop again and the engine was cut. The men jumped off and as Alex gently lowered herself to the ground, ready to grab the truck and jump back up again if it started to move, so that she wouldn’t be left exposed out in the open, she could see several pairs of booted feet all making their way round to one side of the truck, and all facing in the same direction.

Interesting. What had caught their attention?

Rolling out from under the truck on the opposite side, she climbed slowly to her feet and peered over the top to see that every single man had his back to the truck, weapons raised and all pointed in one particular direction, towards another store front, Winn’s red flare marker glowing brightly just a short distance further back. Up on the trailer, two more men had set up a gatling gun and this was also pointed in the direction of the store front.

As the men on foot advanced towards the store, a familiar string of Spanish curses was hurled their way before three loud gunshots echoed and three men dropped down dead. Alex blinked in surprise. She’d been using the truck to safely cover ground and get her closer to her destination. She never imagined it would be taking her to the exact point that she needed to get to, the point where one very vocal, and from the sounds of it, very pissed off detective was currently pinned down by a small army of NPCs.

_ “Did you find her? Is that her in there?” _

Alex couldn’t risk saying anything that could blow her cover, so instead she just nodded her head and gave herself a thumbs up.

_ “Oh, hey cool! What are the odds of that truck taking you exactly where you needed to go, huh?” _

Alex didn’t bother to reply this time as she very slowly and carefully pulled herself up onto the truck, then pulled her hood up where it had slipped down during her undercarriage truck ride. According to the outfit’s stats, the hood gave her an extra stealth advantage as well, which would come in extremely handy now as she crept up on the two men at the gatling gun.

Grabbing the closer of the two first, she placed one hand over his mouth, the other at the back of his head, then twisted sharply. With a loud snap, he became a dead weight in her hands and she laid him down quietly, then advanced on the one who was actually manning the gun. Grabbing him with one arm around his throat, she dragged him backwards away from the gun, kicking his knees to cause him to drop, even as he struggled and his arms flailed all about. Tightening her hold on him with her arm, she waited for several seconds even after he also became a limp, dead weight in her arms, before she also laid him down beside his comrade.

“Alright. Now it’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum… and I’m all out of gum.”

_ “Duke Nukem?”  _ Winn chuckled.  _ “Niiiiice.” _

Stepping over the men to get to the gatling gun, she was just in time to see a small group of the NPC soldiers had swarmed the shop, no doubt in an attempt to flush Maggie out. One of them threw a grenade into the store, and seconds later Maggie herself came flying out through the doorway, shotgun blazing as an explosion ripped through the store behind her.

Before any of the men could open fire on Maggie, Alex reacted with a yell. “Sawyer! Get down!”

The Detective, although she must have been surprised by the shout, didn’t question and did as Alex suggested, throwing herself to the floor just as all other eyes in the area turned to Alex in surprise.

Squeezing the trigger of the gatling gun, Alex moved it in a slow arc from left to right, cutting down everyone in her way. The NPCs fell like a stack of dominos, one after another and the entire thing took less than thirty seconds. As the gun clicked, smoked and spluttered on an empty magazine, Alex finally let go of the trigger to see that no man had been left standing.

There was a few minutes of silence, broken only by the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions, and then very slowly Maggie’s hands came away from her head, and she looked up, a broad smile spreading across her face that only increased as Alex flipped back her hood, no longer needing the stealth aspect. At least not for the moment, at any rate. 

Wasting no time in jumping down from the truck, just as Maggie was pulling herself back to her feet, Alex made her way over to the other woman. “Maggie! I’m so sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner. I was so wo—" 

Alex really should have been used to almost being knocked off her feet by a hug, she’d been on the receiving end of a certain over excited alien’s hugs more than once, after all. But when Maggie slammed into her, it was completely unexpected, and all she could do was instinctively wrap her arms back around the other woman, partly to return the hug, but also partly to keep herself upright and balanced. 

_ “What’s going on? Is she hugging you? Are you hugging her back? You told me you weren't a hugger.” _

“Shut it,” Alex hissed as she held Maggie close, revelling in the very real feeling of the body pressed against her, the body that felt warm, solid, but most importantly, alive.

However, that moment would be cut short as Maggie pushed back, looking up through watery eyes and the smile still plastered on her face. “What was that?”

“Oh, no, not you,” Alex said. “I was... never mind. You're okay. Are you okay? Tell me you're okay.”

“I'm okay.” And even though Maggie said it, even though Alex had held her, she had to reach out again and squeeze Maggie’s shoulders even as the other woman continued. “You're okay. I thought... Well, when I turned around and you were gone, I thought you might be dead. What happened?”

“I... “ Alex started, and then she shrugged, not really sure how to explain. “My people found me. The DEO. It was them that caused that glitch earlier. I think. It was them who I could hear each time I thought someone was calling my name. They were just trying to help, and eventually they worked out a way to pull me out. I’m so sorry it took me so long to get back in. To get back to you. I was so worried I’d never be able to find you again. Or that I’d be too late.”

Maggie’s head tilted to the side, her brows pressing together. “You got out? You were safe?”

“Uh, yeah,” Alex nodded, frowning. Hadn’t she just said that? “It was a hell of a job trying to convince the Director to let me come back in, but let’s just say I don’t take no for an answer sometimes.”

“Okay but,” Maggie paused, reaching out one hand to grip Alex’s shoulder. “Why did you convince him to let you back in? You were safe, Alex.”

“But you weren’t,” Alex replied softly. “You were still here.” There was a long pause then as she gazed into Maggie’s eyes, watching that thought sink in. And then she offered the briefest hint of a smile. “I promised I’d have your back.”

“Yeah, yeah, you did.” And when the smile returned, Alex thought she’d do anything to see it every day, to be the reason that smile kept returning. “Alex, I…”

It was hard to say which one of them moved first, but when Maggie touched her cheek, Alex leaned into the contact. Then they were both moving, bridging the slight distance between them until there wasn’t one, until they could feel the air from the other’s breath puff along their skin. Instincts took over as their heads tilted and they leaned even closer together until—

There was a crackle of static from the truck’s radio, then a brief squeal before it was replaced by a series of beeps. They were precise, measured, and patterned, and it only took a few short series of them before Alex recognized the noise. “That’s Morse Code,” she said, stepping reluctantly away from Maggie and moving back to the truck, closer to the source of the noise so she could follow it clearly. “That’s an SOS,” she said, listening as the code looped back to the beginning and then tapped out once more. She let it go all the way through one more time, making sure she had the whole message. “It says ‘SOS radio tower’ and then repeats. Someone needs help. Winn, a little help here?”

_ “On it. I’m checking the maps for a radio tower.” _

“Who’s Winn?”

“Oh, he’s...” Alex waved in the general direction of her head, not really sure how to explain the feed to the real world she now had, so settled on, “He’s one of my agents. He’s giving us some tech support from the real world.”

_ “No radio tower, at least on the part of the map you can access. I’m hacking through your feed, but I can’t get to anything you haven’t seen yet. There is another map, a side map. I can’t see it, but it seems to be cut off from the main game.” _

“A side map?” Alex frowned. She started to pace a little, back and forth, just a few paces in each direction. “Like a bonus level?”

_ “Um, maybe? I can’t see what’s on the map, just that it exists and is a lot smaller than the main map by the file size. What are you thinking?” _

“I’m thinking,” Alex raised both hands to link her fingers together then placed them both at the back of her neck, even as she tilted her head up to gaze at the overhead plume of thick black smoke and dark gray clouds beyond. “That someone is trapped and needs our help. But the question is where are they, and how do we get to them? Is there any way this could be a trap? Or just an NPC? Can we be sure it’s a real world player?”

“Are you asking me, or are you asking Casper because I don’t know,” Maggie said. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. What’s a bonus level?”

Alex waved Maggie off as Winn said,  _ “Oooh, Casper. I like that. Hold on. Let me try something.” _ There were several moments of silence, and then an  _ “Ah ha!” _ from Winn, followed by,  _ “Okay, I can see real logins active in the system. There’s you and the detective, three people who haven’t left the tutorial, and there’s one other. I bet that’s your guy, girl, player, you know.” _

“I need a location, Winn.”

_ “I’m trying. Can’t you hear me trying? Listen to my keyboard clack.”  _ And it did, a continuous click-clack of keys before Winn’s voice broke in again. _ “Okay, I got something. I still can’t see anyone’s exact location, but I do have levels for you and our mystery gamer. There are two players on level 5C, I’m assuming that’s you two, and there’s a third player on level 5Z. That must be where your SOS is coming from.” _

“Okay, so our other player is,” Alex looked around, “somewhere. How do I find him, Winn?”

_ “I don’t know. I’m sorry, Alex, but I can’t pinpoint player locations. I just don’t have that level of access.” _

“Just,” Alex took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, “It’s not your fault. We’ll have to figure it out on our end, right?”

“That was to me?” Maggie asked. “Sure, I guess so. I don’t know what we’re figuring out, but I’m on your side, Danvers. What are we figuring out?”

“How to stay alive until we can find out whoever else is trapped in here with us and get them out. Come on, help me search these bodies before any more NPCs roll up or the helicopter returns. NPCs have been dropping a lot of loot, and that means we’ll need it which spells trouble.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow. “You know my feelings on looting, Agent.”

“Oof, I’m back to Agent? That’s harsh.”

“So is looting.”

“It’s part of the game. Looting gets you the good stuff. And if we are going to go and save this other trapped player, wherever he or she may be, I want to be as prepared as I can be. Especially as we’re both down to our last lives and really can’t afford to take any chances. Look, if it helps, just think of them as chests or caches or something.”

Maggie let out a groan and rubbed her eyes for a moment, then sighed and nodded. “I hate that you’re right but… well, you’re right. We probably should.” She advanced on the first body, gun held in a two handed grip, poised and ready as she nudged his leg with the toe of her boot. He didn’t move. Another nudge yielded no more movement than the first time, so she slowly lowered herself into a crouch and took a one handed grip instead. “Okay, what do I do?”

“Check his pockets,” Alex was already crouched beside another body. “They’re NPCs, so they should have some useful stuff.”

As if to prove her point, from the first body she searched she came away with a small bag of coins, a pair of fingerless gloves that appeared to be some kind of add-on to the outfit she was wearing and three magazines of ammunition for her rifle.

Whilst not all bodies had something to loot, the second, fifth and eighth bodies that Alex tried also yielded similar amounts of ammo, along with health tonics, both minor and major and a few items of food. She also picked up an AK-47 Assault Rifle and a Desert Eagle sidearm which was equipped with the quickdraw feature too, allowing her to stash it in the holster that had now appeared on her other thigh. The AK-47 sat over one shoulder and Alex realised belatedly that this probably meant there was a slot over her other shoulder for her current rifle too. She could have used the quickdraw feature for it all along, but hadn’t realised until now that it was even a thing. 

“Okay,” Maggie’s voice came from nearby. “I got this… what is it?”

Alex glanced up, but whatever Maggie was referring to had already vanished, so she could only shrug in reply. “Open your inventory and see?”

She waited whilst Maggie did just that, and then saw the Detective frown. “Huh. Says it’s an outfit. Doesn’t say what it’s an outfit of, though.”

Alex sat back on her haunches, now giving Maggie her full and undivided attention. “So put it on and find out.”

Maggie selected the outfit and as she stood back up, her outfit changed in an instant from the orange and cream jungle gear to a complete set of space-age armour that made Alex’s jaw drop. Literally.

_ “Is that N7 Armour?! FemShep is like your ultimate hero!" _

Alex had many video game heroes, but FemShep certainly was one of them, this was true.

“Maggie that’s… that’s… you got Commander Shepard!” Alex spluttered at last.

Maggie looked down at herself then shrugged. “I don't know who Commander Shepard is, but I like her style.”

Alex studied the outfit up and down for a moment longer, then remembered herself at last and shook her head. “Sorry, it’s just… look, I know this is going to sound really, really geeky and childish of me, but… can you just say something for me? One line? And then I promise I won’t make you say it ever again.”

One of Maggie’s eyebrows slowly rose. “I don’t know whether to be intrigued or terrified by that notion.” She paused and considered for a moment, before finally caving with a sigh and a smile. “Alright fine, what am I saying?”

Alex leaned forward, brushed a few strands of the detective’s hair gently away from her ear and whispered. 

Maggie nodded, then as Alex stood back waiting expectantly, the detective shrugged again. “Okay, what the hell… I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.”

From the other end of Alex’s communication to the outside world, there was a high pitched squeal of joy.  _ “No freaking way! Dude!” _

Alex couldn’t help but grin as well. A big, stupid, full of joy grin. “Best. Day. Ever.”

“I still have no idea what the hell’s going on, but your smile made it totally worth it. You’re cute when you’re being a total geek, Danvers.”

_ “Just don’t get her started on Dragon Age. Or Mass Effect. Or Zelda. Or The Witcher. Or Uncharted. Or Tomb Raider. Or Red Dead Redemption. Or—"  _

“Shhh!” 

Maggie, who had been looking around for a moment, glanced back to Alex again. “What was that?”

“Casper,” Alex pointed to her ear in explanation, then when Maggie’s back was turned once more, Alex gave herself a one fingered salute.

_ “Uh, rude!” _

“So which direction, Danvers, since you have a fancy GPS built in now.”

“Um… I guess we head toward the exit from this level and hope we find the bonus level along the way. Winn, set us a course?”

When Winn replied,  _ “Aye, aye, Captain,” _ Alex started to regret this new partnership. At least in the real world, she could walk out of the room when Winn geeked out. 

In all fairness, Winn was being incredibly helpful, and he proved his usefulness again when a series of flares appeared along the road at about thirty foot intervals.

“Holy, crap. What are those?”

“The yellow brick road, Dorothy. Come on. Let’s follow it,” Alex said as she set off along the path Winn had lit up for them, her rifle in her hands as she returned to high alert. She could still hear the thrum of the Black Hawk helicopter in the distance, and as long as it stayed there, that would be fine.

“So, I’m more of a Tin Man kind of girl,” Maggie said as she pulled up alongside Alex, her shotgun at the read and her head practically swiveling as they made their way down the street.

“Heartless? You?”

“According to my ex, yeah.” Maggie shrugged. “She also had a few other choice words for me.”

“She clearly didn’t know you well then. Her loss.”

_ “Oh, wait. I see what’s going on here. You like her. Does she like you too?” _

Alex gritted her teeth, not responding.

“Maybe I didn’t let her get to know the real me. Maybe I always knew she wasn’t the right girl.”

And when Maggie glanced over at Alex and smiled, shyly, Winn’s responding smile came through his voice.  _ “Oooooh. She does, doesn’t she?” _

“Will you zip it?” Alex growled before throwing an apologetic glance in Maggie’s direction. “Not you, Casper.”

“Chatty boy huh? That must be annoying since—” Maggie stopped halfway down the street, staring at a brick wall across the way. “What’s that?”

“What’s what? What do you see?”

“A clue.” Maggie grinned over at Alex and led her to the wall. “Something blue is glowing behind here.”

“God, I love your eyes.” Even as Winn choked out a noise in her head, Alex realized what she’d said. “No, not your eyes, I mean, I love that thing you do, your skill, your special—”

_ “Maybe stop while you’re behind?” _

If Maggie heard Alex, she didn’t react. She was carefully prodding at the wall, and when she pushed in one of the bricks, the whole thing lit up so that even Alex could see it. The wall withdrew brick by brick, leaving a passageway with the words ‘Bonus Level’ glowing brightly above the opening.

“Hey, Danvers, with my keen detective senses, I think this might be it.” She grinned back at Alex. “So, what are we doing?”

Alex squared her shoulders and pointed her rifle into the opening to the new level. “We’re going in, and we’re going to find whoever’s in there and bring them out. I’m not losing anyone else to this place.”

  
  



	8. Race to the Rescue

“Well fuck,” Maggie grumbled beside Alex, as they stepped from the darkness and out into a new area that was much more rural than the city they’d just left behind. They were on some sort of dirt track, with grassy banks and a few trees to either side, whilst in the distance a radio tower rose above the treeline, easily the tallest thing for miles around. But this wasn’t why Maggie was cursing, Alex quickly realised as she turned to the Detective to see that she had her inventory open, but every single item except her single health potion was currently greyed out. Each time she touched her shotgun to select it, nothing happened.

Alex quickly called up her own inventory and found the exact same thing. Whatever was going on, their inventories had been locked.

“Of course,” she realised with a groan, closing her inventory again. “It’s a bonus level. It’s probably part of the level to make all players even, regardless of their level or rank within the game.” As Maggie turned to her, Alex added with a vague hand gesture, “It’s why you’re not wearing your armor any more.”

“Neither are you. Although the leather biker chick look suits you, Danvers.”

Alex glanced down to her own attire to see that she was dressed similarly to Maggie, both of them now wearing leather fingerless gloves, leather pants, cotton t-shirts, and kick ass ankle boots in Alex’s case, knee length boots in Maggie’s. Where Alex’s shirt was red, Maggie’s was blue, and where Alex’s leather pants and boots were black, Maggie’s were brown, but otherwise, their outfits were identical.

“Likewise, Sawyer,” Alex managed to grin as she called up her map instead. Unlike the rest of the levels so far, this map was tiny in comparison and showed what looked like a circle, with their objective marker in the middle, and them at the very edge. Glancing up at the radio tower, then back to her map again, then at the radio tower again, Alex shut the map down and pointed. “Whoever we’re here to rescue is in that tower.”

“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to be as easy as it looks?” Maggie raised a hand to her eyes to shield them from the overhead sunlight filtering through the trees. 

“Because you’re learning,” Alex replied as she looked all around their surroundings, then reached up to her ear, purely out of habit. “Hey, Winn, how’s it looking on your end?”

Nothing but silence accompanied her words, and Alex frowned. “Winn? Winn?! Winslow!... Shit!”

“What?” Maggie asked, her voice laced with anxiety.

“We must have lost him somehow. We’re on our own again,” Alex’s hand fell back down against her thigh again with an audible slap.

Maggie shrugged. “So? We made it this far without him, right?”

Alex ran a hand through her hair, then let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, any hidden caches that could help us around here? I feel naked without a weapon of some sort.”

The look in Maggie’s eye told Alex that the detective wanted to make some no doubt crude comment, but was visibly restraining herself from doing so. Even so, Alex pointed a finger at her with a grin. “Shut up, you. Go do your detective magic and find us some loot.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Maggie mock-saluted before turning in a slow circle for a moment, then starting off up the dusty track, Alex close behind.

About five minutes up the road, Maggie paused, then diverted off to the right, pushing her way through some thick undergrowth.

“Mags, be careful,” Alex warned as she ventured after her.

“Yeah, yeah,” Maggie’s voice called back from further ahead, followed by lots of rustling. “Hey, Danvers, get up here!”

Sensing an urgency to Maggie’s tone, Alex ducked and hurried as much as she was able, though this was clearly one of those times where Maggie’s short height was an advantage compared to Alex who had to duck and scramble inelegantly. Alex finally emerged in a small clearing with a wooden hut that looked abandoned, a tree stump with an axe buried in the top and a pile of neatly chopped wood beside it… and an unnatural eeriness about the whole place.

Maggie was peering through a window of the hut, standing on tiptoes to get a better look but turned when he saw Alex’s reflection in the dirty glass. “There’s stuff in there.”

Alex shivered, looking all around and shaking her head. “I dunno, Mags, something doesn’t feel right.” As if to emphasise her point, she reached out and grabbed the axe, tugging it free of the tree stump after a little effort. 

“It’s probably a trap,” Maggie agreed slowly. “But what other choice do we have? We’re clearly going to face something craptastic, if the rest of this nightmare has been anything to go by, and in there are caches that could save our lives.”

“Or lead us into an ambush that kills us,” Alex frowned, hefting the axe a little in her hands to get a feel for its weight.

Maggie turned back to the window and rubbed at it with her sleeve to try and clear some of the dirt so she could get a better look. And then she paused and looked back at Alex. “Huh?”

“Huh what?” 

“I thought you said something?”

“Nope, not me,” Alex shook her head. 

“Okay,” Maggie nodded. “Must have been the wind in the… Danvers?” Alex had been looking down at the axe in her hand again, but noting the change of tone as Maggie said her name, she looked back up and saw Maggie staring in wide eyed horror into the glass of the window. Alex could only see Maggie’s reflection. And something else.

Somebody was slowly trudging towards them. Very slow, almost robotic in their movements, a sort of ambling, foot dragging stumble as they groaned and moaned.

Alex turned very slowly, the axe gripped tighter in her hands as she brought it up in front of her, and her blood ran cold.

“Fuck! Maggie, inside, now!”

“Don’t need to tell me twice!” Maggie called from the doorway of the hut as another figure, and then a third ambled from the shadows of the trees to join the first, all of them moaning and groaning, awkward in their movements, eyes unfocused and mouths hanging wide open. A gnarled, rotten hand slowly extended towards Alex even though they were still several feet away. She backed up hastily into the hut with Maggie and kicked the door shut, then leaned back against it.

“Of course it’s fucking zombies!” she groaned. “Of course!”

“Probably should have seen this coming, huh?” Maggie was dragging a chair over from the dining table. Together they propped it under the handle of the door to block it, just as the zombies reached the steps up to the door, and then a moment later the door itself. The stench of rotted flesh was overwhelming, even through the wood of the door, and Alex gagged as she backed away, armed and ready with her axe. 

She and Maggie didn’t dare make a sound, listening to the scraping, clawing sounds of nails as the undead creatures tried to get in.

After what felt like an eternity, but could only have been a few minutes, there was silence. Both women glanced at one another uncertainly, neither one daring to move, speak or even breathe, as they waited. 

Maggie made a small gesture with one hand to get Alex’s attention, then motioned first to herself, then her eyes, then the window. Even as Alex was shaking her head, Maggie carried on, pointing to Alex, then the axe, then moving one hand flat over the top of her head before pointing to herself. 

Not seeing any other alternative, Alex reluctantly nodded, then dropped into a half crouch, ready to dart forward, her muscles tighter than a coiled spring as very slowly, Maggie inched forward little by little, doing her best not to make a sound as she moved towards the window. 

Very carefully, she reached the wall beside the window and peered out, then let out a slight breath, before whispering, “I think they’ve gone.”

“Then let’s get these caches and get out of here before they come back,” Alex hissed back, her eyes still firmly riveted on the door. “I’ll keep guard, you do your magic with the locks.”

“I really, really, really hope there’s some good stuff in these crates now,” Maggie muttered as she crept back past Alex, to the back of the hut and dropped to one knee in front of the first crate. Alex didn’t dare take her eyes off the door, which she’d observed shortly after running in was the only way in or out of the tiny building, if it could even be called that as it was in actual fact little more than a single room. This was both a blessing and a curse, because it gave them only one exit to cover but also only one means of escape as well. If the zombies returned, they’d be trapped, but likewise, it would be much easier to defend just the one door.

Behind her, there was the light clicking sounds that Alex had now come to associate with Maggie’s lock picking skills, followed by a slightly louder click, that in the otherwise silence of the hut sounded like a whip crack. 

Both held still, not daring to even blink, waiting with baited breath to see if the undead nightmares would return. A full minute passed before Maggie deemed it safe enough to slowly open the lid and reach inside. as Alex finally dared to glance back to watch. The chest was no larger than a shoe box, but like every other chest in the game so far, it was deceptively bigger on the inside, and she pulled out first a baseball bat, then a pair of reddish brown leather gauntlets, followed by a hunting knife and then a hammer.

Laying everything out on the floor between them, Maggie then moved to the next one. This one was much easier to unlock and held another pair of dark gray leather vambraces, a pair of dark gray leather shoulder pauldrons, some circular saw blades, and a bucket of rusted nails.

The final two chests yielded five health potions, two squares of cloth (one red, one blue), another set of shoulder pauldrons, this time with an adjoining crescent shaped piece of leather that would cover the upper part of the chest and collar bones, an old fashioned alarm clock, a copper kettle, a set of cutlery, a single hand grenade, a chainmail shirt, a black leather vest, a set of leather shin pads, another baseball bat, a wooden bowl, and a set of keys that looked like they belonged to some sort of vehicle, though gave no indication as to what.

Quickly and quietly they divided up the loot. All except for the alarm clock, kettle and wooden bowl which they both assumed were nothing more than useless bits of junk to clog up their inventories.

Alex took the vehicle keys, hand grenade, one of the baseball bats, the dark gray vambraces, dark gray shoulder pauldrons, black leather vest, circular saw blades, all the health potions as she was able to carry more of them anyway, the red square of cloth, and the leather greaves. 

Maggie took the hammer, hunting knife, reddish brown leather gauntlets, the pauldrons with adjoining gorget, chainmail shirt, the blue square of cloth, the remaining baseball bat, the cutlery set, and the bucket of rusted nails.

After quickly donning their respective pieces of armor (which surprisingly fitted perfectly) and securing their makeshift weapons within easy reach or stowing them in their inventories, Maggie looked at Alex, her head tilted to one side as she smiled, her dimples popping.

“Ready to face a zombie apocalypse, Danvers?”

Alex tied the red piece of cloth over her nose and mouth to try and filter out some of the smell from the animated corpses beyond the wooden door. “As I’ll ever be. We should find somewhere else to lay low and make some more effective weapons.”

“Chance of us getting to the radio tower without needing to?” Maggie asked as she stepped back over to the door, moved the chair carefully to one side and cracked the door open ever so slightly to peer out. Then she baulked and closed it again quickly. “If we go out this door here… zero percent.”

“What?” Alex frowned, creeping over to the window to peer out, and then sucking in a sharp breath. “Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck.”

“Exactly.”

In the small clearing just outside the hut, a small horde of zombies had appeared. There must have been at least fifteen of them, all ambling around, moaning and groaning, not really serving much purpose other than as a very effective guard to keep both women trapped inside the hut.

“Okay, Plan B,” Alex decided as she headed to the back of the hut and began to feel around the wall. “I’ll check the walls, you check the floor. There has to be another way out of here.”

“How do you know we’re not just expected to fight our way out?” Maggie asked as she dropped to her hands and knees and began to examine the floor anyway.

“I don’t. I’m just really, really hoping we don’t have to,” Alex admitted a little sheepishly as she continued to check for anything that was even remotely like either a loose board they could pull away or a secret handle or lever that would open a back door to let them out.

“I hate to say it, Danvers,” Maggie sat back on her haunches at last, shaking her head. “I think there really is only one way out of this place.”

“You’re probably right,” Alex groaned. Rubbing a hand across her temple for a moment, she just so happened to glance down and see the alarm clock that both of them had discarded as junk. Very slowly, a smile began to form as she bent down to very carefully pick it up. “Hey, we can use this as a diversion. Set it to go off and throw it as far away in one direction as we can. As soon as it draws them off, we make a run for it.”

Maggie tilted her head slowly as one eyebrow rose. “Well I’ll be damned.” Her dimples finally popped again, and Alex felt a fierce blush of heat flood her cheeks. She glanced away quickly. “You really are more than just a pretty face, aren’t you? Alright. Let’s do this. How’s your pitching arm?”

“Rusty,” Alex admitted. “Yours?”

“Non-existent,” Maggie shook her head as she got a better grip on the baseball bat and edged over to the door again. 

“Fair enough.” Alex set the alarm clock to go off in thirty seconds, then nodded to Maggie, who eased the door open slowly and carefully. 

Taking a deep breath, Alex stepped forward and then launched the clock as far as she could, off into the bushes on the left. The thud of it hitting the floor attracted the attention of those zombies nearest to it, who shuffled off to investigate. Twenty seconds later, the shrill ringing of a bell caused a stampede as every single zombie hurried as fast as their rotting limbs would allow them to hurry, towards the source of the noise. 

Alex wasted no time leading the way, and she and Maggie slipped from the hut, heading off to the right, breaking into a sprint when they had put a bit of distance between themselves and the horde.

They didn’t slow again until they were back out on the dirt track that must have served as some kind of road.

As Alex kept watch all around them, turning in slow circles as they walked so that she could check that they weren’t being flanked and that nothing nasty was going to surprise them, Maggie called up her map which was much more detailed than Alex’s, as both had come to learn by now. 

“Alright, looks like there’s a gas station just up the road here. Worst case scenario, we skip straight past. Better case, we find a garage to make better weapons. Best case, we find whatever vehicle those keys belong to. I guess it would be too much to hope it’s some kind of armored truck or army tank, huh?”

“That’s pretty wishful thinking there, Detective,” Alex smirked as she walked backwards a few paces, watching the road behind them, armed with the axe she’d taken from the tree stump back at the hut. She was just about to turn towards the front again when movement caught her eye. Squinting a little against the glare of the sunlight through the trees, her eyes widened in horror as very slowly, figure after figure after figure ambled from the treeline and out onto the same road they were now on. They just kept coming, and Alex quickly lost count of how many were now massing and gathering behind them both. “Although… I’d give anything for one of them right now.”

Maggie turned to look over her shoulder as well. “How fast do you think they can move?”

“Only one way to find out,” Alex turned back round on the spot, away from the even larger horde that was ambling down the center of the road, heading in their direction. “On three?”

“Three!” Maggie cried, darting forward in a flat out sprint. It didn’t take Alex long to catch her, and thankfully they started to put some distance between themselves and the main bulk of the horde, though one or two zombies broke ranks and proved they could be quite fast when they wanted to be, gaining on the girls with impossible speed.

“What do we do?!” Maggie cried.

“Run!”

“I am running!”

“Run faster!”

Alex broke ahead, already grateful to her new outfit and the speed boost it gave her, but then hearing Maggie’s grunt of surprise followed by a thud, she glanced back to see Maggie sprawled on the floor, dazed and confused as though not quite sure how she’d got there. Three sprinter zombies were bearing down on her, so Alex wasted no time charging back and swinging with the axe. The first swing caught a female zombie in the side of the head and it shrieked then collapsed to the side. Alex didn’t waste time checking to see if it was dead — well, deader than it already was, at least. She was already swinging at a male zombie that was clawing at Maggie. With another well placed strike, she severed both its hands at the wrists, then kicked it in the chest to send it reeling backwards.

The third one, another male, came for her and she buried the axe blade dead centre of it’s forehead, right between the eyes. It went down in a crumpled heap as Maggie scrambled back to her feet, but the axe was now lodged firmly in it’s skull, and Alex couldn’t pull it free. With the main horde now closing in, she had no choice but to leave the axe, turn, and run again. Seconds later, the zombie body and the axe had both been buried beneath the feet of the stampeding horde that was steadily picking up speed but still unable to match that of the outlying runners that Alex had dealt with. This at least gave the girls hope that they could still outrun them and find someplace to take shelter and lie low.

Coming upon the gas station that Maggie had mentioned a short while later, they did a quick visual scan of the building to see that it looked mostly secure, then ducked round the back and through the door at the rear of the adjoining mechanic’s shop, dropping to a crouch and moving to the window to watch as the horde that had been pursuing them finally reached the gas station… and carried on straight past. There was no longer an urgency to their movements, as if they’d given up on the chase or lost their enthusiasm for it, and they were now just wandering in a mass herd with no real destination in mind. 

When the last of the stragglers had also wandered off, the two girls breathed a collective sigh of relief and then stood up to get a better view of their surroundings. 

“Think we can use any of this stuff?” Alex asked, motioning to the various tool benches and bits of scrap that lay around the workshop as she tugged the cloth from her nose and mouth so that it sat round her neck under her chin instead. 

Maggie ran her hands over a twisted fender from what looked to have once belonged to a pick up truck. “I think we can, yeah. Let me see what I can do.”

“Alright, well I’m going to go next door and see if I can scrounge us any more supplies.” Alex motioned to a crumbled hole in the wall that led to the small shop next door. “Holler if you need me.”

“Don’t worry, Danvers, you’ll hear me alright,” Maggie smirked as she started to select items from her inventory and laid them out on a workbench to study them properly. “Oh, hey, want to leave me some of your stuff and I’ll see what I can make for you too?”

Alex considered for a moment, then walked back over and deposited the baseball bat and circular saw blades on the bench before taking a crowbar off the wall and starting for the shop again. She didn’t have Maggie’s lockpicking skills, after all, so that was her key into any cache she found, as well as being a hefty weapon if any creepers decided to jump on her from the shadows… which in a game like this, was entirely possible. She’d played enough zombie apocalypse games with Winn to know that was the sort of thing that happened, after all. Especially when you were least expecting it.

Alex stepped into the shop. It was a disaster. Someone had obviously hastily exited, but they either ransacked the place on the way out, or that was done after they left. Although her optimism was fairly dampened after seeing the condition, Alex squared her shoulders and began her search, carefully watching for surprise visitors along the way. It took a while, but when she was done she had a pile that included filled gasoline canisters, a lighter, bang snaps, empty beer bottles, rags, duct tape and a few energy bars. Sadly, there were no health tonics or firearms. She even checked behind and under the counter, but if the clerk had a firearm, they took it with them… or the game just hadn’t considered that. Alex was able to stow all of the new gear in her now nearing capacity inventory (which wouldn’t be that bad if she could access her good gear). With her new haul, and a touch of hope returned, she headed back through the wall to find Maggie again.

Alex had just stepped through into the room, she didn’t even get a chance to call out, when something flew about a foot in front of her face. She flinched back instinctively, her crowbar raised in defense, but she saw no one other than a shocked looking Maggie in the room. She glanced to her right, to where a makeshift spear stuck from the wall, vibrating slightly, and then back at Maggie. “Were you trying to kill me?”

“Damn, Danvers, I’m sorry.” Maggie headed to the spear, yanking it free from the wall where it had sunk in about two inches. “I had no idea when you were coming back. I was just testing the accuracy on these things. What do you think?”

It was made with a metal rod, about three feet long, and the tip was made of a piece of metal welded in place. Alex thought the tip was taken from the bumper, but she couldn’t be sure. She hefted it in her hand. It was a little heavy, but maybe the weight helped it to stick. “Impressive.” She pulled back her arm, throwing it at a wooden knot on the far wall. It landed within an inch of the knot, sticking solidly in the wall. “Very impressive. You’ve been busy.”

Indeed, Maggie had an array of makeshift weapons leaning against or laying on a work table. 

There were more throwing spears, some long metal poles, about six feet long, whose tips were sharpened into dangerous looking points, the bats had been adorned with either rusty nails sitting through it or saw blades strapped to it with metal wire, there were bolos made from metal chains with metal balls on the end, two sets of welders gloves that had been added to with bent and sharpened cutlery and two welder’s masks with segments of a leather welder’s apron riveted to the backs so that when they were worn, the leather skirts protected the backs of their necks. It looked absolutely apocalypse ready.

“How did you do all of that so quickly?”

Maggie shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that quick. You were gone for a while. I almost went after you, but every time I poked my head in, I could see you were fine.”

“No, I was there for just—” Alex glanced back at the hole, then at the pile of gear Maggie had made, and then shook her head. Deciding it was more video game magic, she just let it go. “Whatever. Want to see what I found?”

“Does classic corn soup use cotija cheese?” When Alex just stared blankly, Maggie said, “That means yes. Show me what you got, Danvers.”

Alex unloaded her inventory onto the table for Maggie to see. 

“Empty beer bottles?” Maggie shook her head. “That’s a goddamn tease. I could really go for a drink right now.”

“Same here. Raincheck?” When Maggie grinned up at her, Alex turned away before the detective could see the red she was sure was creeping into her cheeks. “Anyway, I thought we could make some cocktails, the Molotov kind, with the bottles, rags, and gasoline. The duct tape, that just seemed like a good idea, and the energy bars could help.”

“This all helps. Nice work, Danvers. We make a pretty good team.” As Alex smiled back, unsure of how to respond, Maggie asked, “You didn’t happen to find an armored vehicle and just forgot to mention it, did you?”

“Let me check my inventory.” When Maggie rolled her eyes, Alex grinned. “Unfortunately no, but hey,” she held up one of the food bars, “have an energy bar. I read the ingredients. They’re vegan.”

“Really? You checked?” Maggie picked one up, glancing at the ingredient list on the back. “Gee, I didn’t know you cared, Danvers.”

“I don’t. Not that I don’t but… I wanted to make sure you could use them since you can’t access every food here, that’s all.”

“Okay, cool,” Maggie said, but the little grin on her face said otherwise. “So, what now? You ready to try and make it to that radio tower?”

“Unless you have a better idea.”

“Sadly, I do not. Let’s see if we can avoid that horde though. We’re better armed, but we can’t stand up to that.”

“Agreed,” Alex said. “You take point?”

Maggie hefted one of the throwing spears. “Sure, you got my back?”

“Always.”

There were several moments of silence then, but neither of them commented on the connotations of that one word. Instead, they split up the gear, reloaded their inventories, and headed out. If they were lucky, they’d be able to sneak around the zombies and not deal with them again, but luck didn’t seem to be going their way in this place.

<><>

After their run in with the horde earlier, the ladies decided to stay off the main path. Though it gave them good visibility, it also left them out in the open for another large group. Maggie’s tracking skills let them set off on a path through the woods, a straight path (one that enticed a sarcastic comment from Maggie) to the tower as opposed to the winding road. Unfortunately, it wasn’t completely clear. They ran into some stragglers including a group munching on a body. They decided discretion was the better course than valor, and they avoided that group. They couldn’t avoid them all and fought on three different occasions, but all groups were of manageable sizes, and their new weapons proved more than capable of taking down the zombies.

Eventually, they reached the outskirts of the radio tower. However, they were far from alone. It looked like the horde from earlier had met up with some friends for an undead jamboree. There were… Maggie was going with countless… zombies wandering around outside a high fence that surrounded the tower. The fence seemed to be keeping the monsters out, but Maggie couldn’t see any motion within. She scanned the surroundings carefully only seeing a lean to, some broken crates, a few oil drums, some scattered pieces of timber, and a veritable wall of the walking dead. The one thing that did give her hope was an armored truck sitting at the base of the tower. Unfortunately for them it was inside the fence, and there was a pack of flesh hungry undead between them and it.

“Well, fuck a duck.” Maggie took several steps back to behind the wooded cover and leaned back against a tree. “There’s no way we’re sneaking past them.”

“We can’t fight them. Let’s see if we can make it to that lean-to and get a better look. Maybe there’s something we’re missing.”

“Like being killed by zombies?” Maggie winced when Alex practically pouted in return. “Sorry, I’m just nervous. Are you wishing you hadn’t come back now?”

“What? No.” 

The warmth of Alex’s hand as she took Maggie’s in her own again astounded Maggie at the amount of realism built into this game. Soft fingers gripping her tightly, almost possessively, were definitely a step up on mosquitoes. 

“There’s no one I’d rather face a zombie horde with.”

“Sweet talker.” It really was though. Alex Danvers managed to make fighting an undead horde in a killer video game sound romantic, but now was no time for those kinds of thoughts. Later, assuming there was a later, Maggie would allow herself to delve into her feelings for the attractive agent, to see if she had any actual feelings or was just reacting to the stress of the situation, but right now, they had more pressing matters. She pulled her helmet out of her inventory and slipped it over her head, then did the same with her modified welder’s gloves. “You ready to do this?”

“I’m not getting any readier,” Alex said, her helmet already in place as she pulled on her knuckle duster gloves.

In silent agreement, they snuck out of the woods, across the road,and behind the pack of monsters. They were out in the open for several terrifying moments that felt like hours, but they made it to the lean-to without reenacting anyone’s final moments from the zombie thriller of the week. Hunched together, with Maggie squatting down and Alex leaning over her shoulder, they took in the landscape again. It was nothing but zombies, zombies, and more zombies. There was no way to— 

“What’s that?” Maggie whispered, pitching her voice up toward Alex.

“What’s what?”

Maggie pointed toward the fence, toward something moving inside the fence. It was brown and black, and as it reached the fencing, it leaned against one piece that pushed out, letting what looked to be a raccoon slip out and make its way along the outer perimeter of the fence.

“That part of the fence is loose. Do you think we can get in that way?” Maggie asked.

“If there weren’t about sixty or seventy zombies between us and it, yeah, I do. What we need is a distraction.”

As if on command, a ruckus broke out on the opposite side of the fence. Maggie couldn’t see anything at first. There was yelling, no words, just loud noises, and the unmistakable sound of metal bouncing off a chain link fence. After several seconds, a figure came into view. They were far away, and their back was to them, but it looked like a man. He was obviously the one yelling, and he waved one hand in the air. The other one had a piece of rebar which he was clanging against the fence as he paced to one end of the fencing and then turned around, heading back in the other direction and out of sight.

As distractions went, it proved to be an excellent one. Those shambling outside the gate groaned a bit more loudly, their communal moans a terrifying symphony especially when mixed with the tense music the game was now playing. However, as a group, they moved around the fence toward the far side. More importantly, they cleared the bit of fencing that the raccoon had pushed its way through.

“This is our chance.” Maggie stood and waved at Alex who was almost pressed to her back. “Follow me.”

A hand gripped Maggie’s shoulder, and Alex asked, “Are you sure?”

“You have any better ideas?” Maggie took Alex’s silence as a response. “Me neither. Let’s go.”

If the trip to the lean-to was terrifying, they’d have to come up with a new word to describe the abject horror and tension that filled Maggie as they crossed the open field with zombies on either side. They made it without being torn apart by the horde, and Maggie was quick to push the loose piece of fence to the side and scramble through. However, she proved once again that the game gave her bonuses that Alex didn’t have.

“Fuck, my leg is stuck,” Alex hissed.

She was right. The fence was stuck on Alex’s boot. She wasn’t going anywhere.

“Back up,” Maggie said.

“What?”

“Back. Up.” Maggie nodded, trying to reassure Alex she knew what she was doing, hoping she knew what she was doing. If the zombies descended, Alex was a sitting duck. Still, as Alex slid backward, Maggie pushed on the fence, pushing it out and up. It took a lot of her strength, but she managed to raise it high enough. “Come on.”

Once freed, Alex slipped back in, and it was with a sigh of relief they closed that bit of fence behind them and stood.

“Thanks,” Alex said. “I wasn’t going anywhere.”

“You’ve got my back, and I’ve got yours, Danvers.” 

“We should probably head inside,” Alex nodded, the welder’s mask making her expression impossible to read. “Go and see who our mystery guy is.”

Together the pair of them headed up the set of metal stairs that wound around the base of the tower, going up to a side door at the top. Inside they found a long worktop covered in what looked like the insides of various mechanical devices and machines that had been butchered and roughly and crudely put back together to form some kind of hybrid radio-type… thing. Maggie really had no other words to describe it.

Also inside the single room was a large locker with a padlock on it and a single cot that had definitely seen better days. 

Footsteps behind them on the stairs made them both turn suddenly to find a man in the doorway - the same one they had seen shouting and hollering at the horde to draw them away from the gap in the fence.

His smile when he saw them both was… sickly. Maggie was going to go with sickly. Far too sweet to ever be good for anyone. “I knew if I waited long enough, the cavalry would arrive.” There was a loud, sharp intake of breath as Alex pulled off her welder’s mask, and the man’s blue eyes opened wide in surprise. “You?”

“You!” Alex’s tone took Maggie completely by surprise. The level of acidity was like nothing Maggie had ever heard from the Agent before now. Even when Alex had been angry, she’d never been this mad. “Of course, this explains it all! I’m stuck in a murderous video game, and it’s all your fault! How did I not see this coming from a mile off?”

The man stepped inside and closed the door behind him, even as he held up his free hand in defence. “I can assure you that none of this is my doing, Agent Danvers. I’m just as stuck as you are. This is the work of an unfortunately disgruntled employee, it would seem.”

“Yeah? And what did you do to make him this mad, Max? Put a bomb on his train?”

“It was nothing of the sort,” the man who was apparently called Max shook his head. “We just had… creative differences. He seems to have taken extreme offence to something I said.”

“Sounds like he knows you pretty well then.”

After watching their bickering back and forth like a tennis match, Maggie soon found herself both dizzy and completely lost. She held up a hand quickly. “Hang on a minute, back it up here. This is a life and death situation. Someone want to tell me what the hell’s going on?”

For her part, Alex looked suitably chagrined as she motioned at the man called Max, even as she spluttered and stumbled in her haste to get out what it was that she was trying to say. “You see he… there was this train and… what he did to my sister was… he’s an asshole! A self centred, stuck up, arrogant son of a bitch!”

“Oof, language,” Max raised his hands to his ears as if they had been physically hurt by her words.

Maggie looked between the two of them incredulously. “That’s it? You just don’t like each other?”

“I actually don’t have a problem with Agent Danvers,” Max shrugged. “This is a one-sided dispute. By the way, Agent, how’s your sister? As I remember, she wasn’t feeling much like herself, last time I saw her.”

A sudden motion from Maggie’s side was all the warning she was given before Alex was launching forward. It was only Maggie’s quick reflexes that allowed her to grab Alex’s shoulder in time and hold her back. “Danvers! Danvers! For God’s sakes… Alex!” At the sound of her name, Alex stopped struggling, though Maggie could still feel the tension beneath her hand as she kept a grip on Alex’s shoulder even through the thick leather padding that the other woman was wearing. As she placed herself between Alex and Max, Maggie turned to look Alex straight in the eye, holding her gaze until Alex’s anger faded enough that Maggie felt it was safe to finally let go. “Hey, fighting each other doesn’t solve anything.”

“No,” Alex grumbled quietly. “But punching him in the face makes me feel better.”

Maggie couldn’t help but chuckle at that, even as she shook her head. “Even so, we came here to rescue him, right?”

“I changed my mind. Let’s get out of here. He can rot in Zombieland for all I care.”

“You don’t mean that.” Though Maggie had the strong suspicion that actually, Alex meant every word. “How about you go and see if those keys you got fit that truck out there? Then we can get out of here in one piece because I really don’t rate our chances if we come across that horde again otherwise.”

Alex opened her mouth, probably to protest, but Maggie shot her one of her stern “don’t mess with me” stares, and the Agent quickly backed down with a nod and a huff, turned on her heel and stormed out without another word.

For a moment there was silence, as Maggie very much debated whether to go after Alex or not. And then another voice cut across her train of thoughts. “She’s a fiery one, huh? We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Maxwell Lord.”

Maggie turned to find him holding out a hand, but she didn’t shake it. She just gave him a quick, cursory nod of acknowledgement. “Detective Sawyer, NCPD.”

“Detective,” Max’s sickly sweet smile was back again. Almost like he was trying to charm her, the way a snake would its prey before striking. But Maggie wasn’t fooled. Not for one moment. She folded her arms across her chest as he continued. “Nice to meet you. I apologise for Agent Danvers’ behavior just then. It’s always embarrassing when someone who is meant to be a professional ends up acting out and showing themselves up.”

“I haven’t known Danvers long, but she doesn’t overreact,” Maggie stated calmly. “I don’t know what you did to her, buddy, but stay out of her face. Now, what can you tell me that will help us all get out of this place in one piece?”

<><>

For lack of anything better to do, Alex decided to do as Maggie had suggested and go and investigate the truck that sat in a second lean-to at the base of the radio tower. Whilst not a common sight on most roads, she would recognise the bulletproof armored Conquest Knight XV anywhere. 

At twenty feet long and almost eight and a half feet tall, the monster machine looked like a humvee on steroids. Or perhaps the resulting outcome if a humvee and a tank had a baby. The ultimate in luxury armored SUVs, it was a fierce force to be reckoned with.  Sleek and black with armor plating, bullet proof glass, added lights mounted on top, and a front-end that could bulldoze a small house , there was no doubt in Alex’s mind that anybody inside that thing would be safe from whatever this zombie apocalypse nightmare could possibly throw at them.

Taking the vehicle key from her inventory, she walked round to the driver’s side, unlocked the SUV and climbed up and in, closing the huge, thick and extremely heavy door after her. Immediately, all other sounds were blocked out, and she was alone. Silence engulfed her, and all she could hear was her own breathing.

After several long, tense, silent filled moments as she worked on controlling her breathing and by extension the anger that was coursing inside her, Alex did indeed feel much calmer. And with this calmness came a certain clarity, as if a curtain had been lifted to reveal the wretched little wizard at last. 

The wretched little wizard who happened to be Maxwell Lord, owner of Lord Tech, the parent company of a certain Maximum Overdrive Games that had manufactured this particular nightmare. How had she not seen this sooner? His name was _ literally _ written on the game, and yet she’d still been surprised to see him. 

Had the creator of this little vendetta of a game not tried to kill both her and Maggie on more than one occasion now, she might actually have sympathised with them. Max, no doubt, deserved everything he was getting and then some. But it wasn’t just his life at stake now. Innocent people had died, and even more innocents were still trapped. She owed it to them - to Eli, to Sophie, to Henry, to Diego, to Frances and to whoever else was now trapped - to see this through. To get out of this place, find the person responsible and put them behind bars for good.

But to do that, she needed to get this truck working. The armored fortress would be their best chance of surviving any hordes they came across, but with an empty fuel gage, they were going nowhere. She turned the key in the ignition, just on the off chance, but it was pretty much as it looked. Empty. Still, it might be of some use to them. It wouldn’t have been put here otherwise. Of that much, Alex was sure. Turning in the seat to peer into the back, she couldn’t see much at first, so ducking and crouching a little to get through the gap, she made her way into the rear of the vehicle to see if there were any fuel canisters or, even better, any weapons.

Unfortunately for her, there were neither, though she couldn’t fail to notice the huge tv screen and smaller but no less impressive screen in a center console between two of the seats. A small keyboard extended from beneath the smaller screen at the touch of a button and both screens lit up to display various options, none of which she had time to go through now. But it may come in handy later. Possibly. There was also some sort of military-grade radio system set up as well. Much more high tech than Max’s cobbled together hunk of junk up in the radio tower. Again, Alex could see that coming in handy. If only she could get the huge beast of a machine working, they’d all be laughing their way to the exit. She hoped.

Scrambling back into the front of the cab again, she looked all about for a moment outside through the thick glass windshield, then opening the cab and climbing back out again, she left the door open and the keys in the ignition, very much doubting that anyone would be hijacking it. Once back outside, she started on a slow walk of the compound to see what she could find. Zombies milled about on the other side of the fence and Alex didn’t want to place bets on how long it would hold if they decided to attack it en mass, but for the moment, they were happy to just do whatever it is that zombies do when they’re not tearing each other and any other living creature apart. One or two looked at her with their dead eyes, as she edged closer to the fence, but they apparently didn’t find any interest in her other than a quick cursory glance before they carried on their ambling way again.

Over on the far side of the compound, opposite the lean-to where the Conquest Knight was housed, there was a large tank of fuel with a hose for easily filling vehicles with. The problem was, it was too far away, the hose didn’t stretch that far, and there was no way she was moving the SUV over to the fuel either. By now she’d come to expect that this was a deliberate act by the game designer to make it infuriatingly impossible for them to use the truck when it was so cruelly within their grasp.

What said game designer hadn’t counted on, however, was trapping a seasoned DEO agent within their game - one who was resourceful, intelligent and had played more than her fair share of video games in her time to know that there was always a solution. It might not be the most obvious or straightforward one, but there was always a way. No game was ever unbeatable. You just had to work it out, think outside the box and look at everything from a different angle. 

So that’s exactly what she did.

Finding a workbench near the fuel tank, she unloaded the bottles, rags and cans of gasoline from her inventory then set about making as many molotovs as she could, from them. When all seven bottles had been used, she stashed the cocktails back into her inventory, then carried the now empty fuel canisters over to the fuel tank, using the hose to fill each of them easily enough. Then she carried these cans back over to the SUV, emptied them into its own fuel tank at the rear, then carried the now empty canisters back across the compound to repeat the process again.

After four trips like this, she checked the fuel gage to see that she was almost full. One last trip should do it.

After this trip was also completed, she refilled the canisters and then stowed them in her inventory, just in case. 

Almost as soon as she’d stowed them away, something changed. Whether it was the wind, the atmosphere, or even just something programmed into the game mechanics, it didn’t matter. One minute the zombies were happy to mind their own dead business outside the fence, the next, the music picked up into a steadily terrifying string affair that could only mean bad news as every single zombie stopped, then in unison they all turned to face the fence.

“Fuck,” Alex muttered, backing up towards the steps leading up to the tower. Her hand had literally only just found the railing behind her when the first of the zombies let out a feral snarl and hurled itself at the fence. Within a matter of moments, the others had followed suit. “Guys! We need to go!” Alex hollered up the stairs. “Now!”

There were muffled voices from up in the tower and then rapid footsteps as the other two came running down, somewhat panicked.

“What happened?” Maggie gasped as she hit the bottom of the stairs at a run, skidding to a stop in front of the truck a moment later.

“The game,” Alex could only shrug. “It must have known we were getting close to working it out. We need to go, now.”

“I call shotgun!” Maggie was already disappearing round to the passenger side of the huge truck.

“I need to go and grab the radio,” Max turned to go back to the tower, but Alex stepped in front of him. 

“There’s one in the truck. Get in.”

“It’s not a truck, it’s an armored SUV, and it’s called — “

“I don’t give a fuck what it’s called. Get in the damned truck!”

“But — “

“Get in the truck, don’t get in the truck, I’ve run out of fucks to give, Max!” Alex stepped out of his way and made for the driver’s door. “Just know that if that lot breaks through that fence and you’re not in the truck, you’re on your own.” 

As if to prove her point, the gates gave one last ominous groan, like the last sounds of a dying animal, and then gave way completely. Zombies began to pour into the compound en mass, and whatever else Max and Alex had been about to say to one another died on their lips. Turning in unison, they scrambled for the doors, Alex climbing back into the driver’s side, whilst Max climbed into the rear, their doors simultaneously closing with loud bangs. 

“Danvers?!” Maggie’s eyes were wider than Alex had ever seen them before. She shook her head and forced what she hoped was a reassuring, confident smile onto her own face.

“It’s fine, they can’t get in. It’s fine.” It sounded like a lie, even to her own ears, and she just wished she could feel more confident in her own reassurances.

The first of the zombies reached them moments later, clawing and scraping, banging rotted limbs against the truck, but it didn’t even shake under the momentum. Soon more and more of the undead nightmare creatures were literally throwing themselves at the truck, but to no avail.

It was only then that Alex let out a sigh of relief. “See. Told you. Nothing to worry about.”

Alex reached for her seatbelt at last as Maggie glanced first at her, then at Max in the back, then shook her head. “So, you know where you’re going?”

“Nope,” Alex replied as she turned the key in the ignition. The SUV came to life with a deep, throaty roar that could easily be heard even through the thick armor and bulletproof glass. 

Again there was silence for a moment, broken only by the barest sound of tires on gravel as Alex eased the vehicle out of the lean-to.

“Want me to— “ 

Alex glanced over and saw that Maggie was pointing to the globe tattoo on her wrist. After a deep breath, Alex nodded, exhaling slowly. “Yeah. Sorry. Would you mind?”

“Hey,” Maggie reached a hand across and placed it over one of Alex’s. “We’re going to make it, okay? Together. We’re a team, remember?”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded again, feeling some of the tension loosen as she managed a smile, which she flashed in Maggie’s direction briefly.

“Uh, ladies?” Max’s voice came through from the back, reminding them they weren’t alone.

Maggie pulled her hand back quickly and called up the map. “Okay, so beyond those gates, we need to hang a right until we come across some sort of river. Then we follow the river to a bridge, which we’ll need to cross. I can guide us again when we reach that point?”

“Ladies?”

“It looks kind of a long assed way to get to where we need to get to,” Alex pondered as she leaned over to study the map a little more closely. “What if we went—" 

“Ladies?!”

With a roll of her eyes, Alex glared back between the seats. “What?!”

Max couldn’t verbally answer. He was too transfixed with something up ahead, even as he raised a trembling hand to point past her and Maggie, out the front through the windshield.

Turning to follow where he was indicating, Alex suddenly forgot how to breath. “Holy...! Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

Towering over the human sized zombies that were still making their way through where the gate had once been, another figured lumbered. It was easily nine feet tall, gray, and massively muscled. It rushed forward with the knuckles from its gangly arms dragging in the dirt behind it. As it reached a group of normal zombies - because ‘normal zombies’ was a thing now - it grabbed them in a meaty club-like hand and tossed them away. They flew like toothpicks in a tornado. Even its rotting flesh and bits of bone sticking through muscle and skin didn’t seem to slow it down. It was closing in on their location fast, it’s crazed glare pasted to the truck’s occupants, and spittle flying from its maw.

“What the fuck?!” Maggie gasped audibly beside Alex in the passenger’s seat. “Danvers, get us out of here! Now!”

“Working on it!” Alex revved the engine, a steely glare fixed on the mangled remains of the gate that was their way out of the compound. But was also on the other side of the behemoth that had appeared, because this whole level wasn’t already hard enough. “Hold on tight. Max, get that radio working and try to get my connection back to the outside world.”

“How?!” He snapped, his head appearing momentarily between their two seats.

“You’re the tech guy, work it out!” Alex slammed the truck into reverse, hit the gas, and Max was thrown forwards as the SUV launched backwards, away from the zombie crowds and the gigantic… thing. Alex didn’t know how else to describe it other than it was fugly as hell.

The SUV was armored and bulletproof. A sea of soft, very breakable bodies wasn't going to stand in the way, so instead of the brake, she stepped even harder on the gas and several zombies were thrown clear to either side as even more vanished beneath the wheels. Ploughing backwards through what was really a very flimsy fence, when you stopped to consider that it was meant to protect anyone within the compound, Alex careered down a small incline, using the hill to increase their speed as she waited for the exact right moment. Seconds later, she grabbed the emergency brake and spun the wheel simultaneously, executing a perfect 180 spin. She’d already set the SUV back into drive again before it had finished turning, and at last they were racing forwards away from the compound.

"Gap in the trees," Maggie said, visibly calming herself as she focussed on the task at hand, namely navigating them to safety. "Through there. Not the way we were going to go, but looks like this way might be shorter anyway."

Alex grabbed the emergency brake again and drifted the SUV off the road across the grass to the right, shooting through the narrow gap in the trees with barely an inch to spare on either side. This set them on another road, but a much narrower woodland dirt track this time. 

“Told you there had to be a shorter route,” she smirked, even as from the back, Max’s voice called to them. 

"Jesus Christ, you're going to get us all killed!" 

"Shut up!" she snapped back as they twisted and wove their way through the trees, never once slowing as more and more zombies ambled through the trees to try and block their path. Whenever one got in the way, Alex simply ran them down. She wasn’t worried about the ‘normal zombies’. It was the gigantic freak of nature that terrified her, and any moment, she was expecting it to reappear again.

"Watch out on the right… rock on the left… take the next left, careful it's tight… bridge up ahead…" Maggie navigated like a calm professional, trusting Alex implicitly as she never once uttered a single complaint, unlike Max who was whimpering and yelping at the slightest bump. 

Alex had found her pace now. This was her life. This was what she was used to. High speed chases through dangerous territory, every move a matter of life and death, every choice imperative to their survival. 

After a few tense minutes of silence, broken only by Maggie’s directions, a loud static filled the air, making Alex jump. “Jesus Max! A little warning next time!”

“What happened?” His head appeared through the gap in the seats again.

“The static,” Alex growled as she swerved round a larger group of zombies and Max was thrown backwards again with a loud curse. 

When he re-emerged, glaring at her and rubbing his head, he asked, “What static? I can’t get the damned thing to work, even though it says it’s got a signal.”

“You mean you can’t hear it?” Alex glanced from Max, across to Maggie who also shook her head, then she sighed. “Okay, only I could hear Winn last time, so why was I expecting anything different now? Just keep doing whatever you’re doing. It’s working.”

“If you say so,” Max shrugged, vanishing into the back again.

They continued down the road for several miles. More than once, they’d come upon groups of zombies who, upon becoming aware of them, would give chase only to be left in their dust. Still, Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t out of the woods, literally or figuratively, yet. When they finally reached the river, they made a sharp left at Maggie’s instructions. The river was steadily raging, not the sort of thing they could drive through. More than once, Alex shook her head as squeals of static would blare loudly in her head. She’d think Max was doing it on purpose if he could hear what she was hearing. Finally though, the unpleasantness faded away to a familiar voice.

_ “Admiral, this is blue leader, standing by.” _ Winn’s voice sounded almost bored as it finally cleared.

“Winn?”

_ “Alex? Alex, you’re back! I thought… I mean your body seems healthy enough but… Kara was worried.” _

“Kara, huh?” Alex smirked over at Maggie who, after a curious glance at Alex’s internal dialogue which was out loud, went back to studying details on the map. “Well, tell Kara I’m doing fine. We all are, all three of us.”

_ “Three? You found your mystery player?” _

“Yup,and you wouldn’t guess who it is.”

_ “Max Lord.” _

“But— How—” Alex sputtered and glared at the man in the backseat. “How did you know that?”

_ “Once you told me the name of the game, finding the owner of the company was simple. Did you kick his ass?” _

It was with Herculean strength that Alex kept her eyes on the road. “No, but it’s early. Give me time.”

_ “That sounds like you. So, how does Mr. Lord fit into all of this? Did he get trapped in his own killing game?” _

“Lord says no. He claims a disgruntled employee is trying to kill him. Knowing Max as well as I do, I believe him.”

_ “Yeah, that scans. Okay, what do you need from me?” _

“Hold on.” When she glanced in the mirror again, she found Max watching her cagedly. “Lord, where are you? I mean, where’s your body? I’m in touch with the DEO again. I can have an agent pull you out.”

“A DEO Agent?” Max glanced at Maggie, who was dutifully ignoring them both, and his smug grin returned. Only fear for her life kept Alex from stopping the vehicle to throttle him. “Well, thank the DEO for the offer of a rescue, but it won’t work. I’m in my home, and my defenses are up. There’s no way they’re getting in there.”

“Are you sure because—”

“I created my defenses with the DEO in mind. Your people won’t get through.”

“What about—”

“There’s kryptonite,” Max said, “in multiple colors.”

The vehicle came to a screeching halt, Maggie only stopped from an unpleasant collision with the dash thanks to her seatbelt. Max, who was not buckled up, wasn’t so lucky and slammed into the back of Maggie’s seat. They both yelled out, but Alex didn’t respond. She threw the car into park, hopped out, pulled open Max’s door, and pulled him out by his shirtfront, then slammed him up against the side of the SUV, pinning him in place with her fury.

“You son of a bitch!”

Even as Max cowered, Maggie raced around the vehicle and grabbed Alex’s free arm, which had once again curled into a fist. She held the agent back, held that threatening fist away from making contact with pixelated flesh. “Alex, what the fuck?”

“He’s a fucking asshole. Do you know what he did to my sister?”

“No, but maybe now isn’t the time?”

Before Alex could answer, a loud roar erupted in the distance, an unpleasant reminder that the monster was still out there. Not to mention who knows how many other zombies as well, no doubt congregating on them even as they wasted time standing around arguing.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Alex admitted reluctantly, and it was perhaps one of the hardest things she’d had to do in a very long time as she forced her fingers to loosen and let go of his collar. Then she turned and walked away, climbing back into the car. “He’s not worth it.”

They were back in motion less than a minute later, and Maggie’s heavy gaze was a reminder that the incident wasn’t left behind. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

“I…” Alex shook her head. “I can’t. It’s not my place.” Her hands gripped the steering wheel fiercely, wringing it as if it was Max’s neck until her knuckles turned white. When a hand touched her shoulder, she jerked, but it was only Maggie, Maggie whose gentle presence was a calming reminder of what was important. “I’m sorry about before.”

“Hey, no worries. When we get out of here, I’ll hold him down so you can have a proper conversation with him about the past.”

Alex found it impossible to not smile back at Maggie’s gentle smile. “It’s a date. Oh. Wait. I didn’t mean—”

“Danvers!” 

Up ahead of them, the giant zombie stood in the middle of the road. Alex spun the wheel to the right, narrowly avoiding it, but when it struck out and punched the side of the vehicle, the whole thing jumped and skidded several feet to the side. Max yelled and careened around in the back while Alex gritted her teeth.

“Put your damn seatbelt on already, Max!” She glanced into the rear view mirror, the thing keeping time as it ran after them. “Winn, our maps are vague and crap. Where’s that damn bridge?”

_ “Um… about 600 feet ahead on your right. Man, I hope it’s big enough for this truck.” _

“It fucking better be,” Alex growled, but as she rounded a curve in the road, there it was. It was metal and looked gloriously strong. “The exit is on the other side of the bridge?”

“There’s an X there,” Maggie said.

_ “Yeah, that’s your exit. Just keep going straight over the bridge. It will be there… somewhere.” _

“Very reassuring.” In truth, Winn’s presence was. He was a reminder that Alex had backup and wasn’t truly that far from home.

Near the entrance to the bridge, Alex hit the brake and gas as she yanked the wheel to the right. The vehicle skidded into a sharp turn, and she pulled her foot from the brake and hit the gas. It fishtailed slightly but righted itself after just glancing off the bridge. Behind them, the creature screamed and smashed against the bridge, stumbled and fell. Even as the bridge shook beneath them under the collision, it held steady, and Alex grinned as the monster grew smaller and smaller in her rearview mirror.

“I don’t suppose that thing is going to stay down,” Max said.

“Zip it, Lord, or we’ll toss you out there to keep it busy.” Maggie looked at the map at her wrist again. “It’s about 300 feet ahead.”

There was nothing ahead of them. Well, not nothing. There was grass with a road created through vehicle wear, but there was certainly no portal. 

“I don’t see anything,” Alex said.

“We’re almost on top of it,” Maggie said.

_ “Yeah, it’s on the map, Alex. Just keep going.” _

“Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming,” Alex muttered to herself, a heavy frown on her face. “Damn, I miss Kara.”

_ “She knows, Alex. You’ll see her again soon.” _

With grim determination, Alex nodded, glancing back to the hulking zombie who was behind them again. Before she was able to utter a warning to the others, they were all consumed in a bright flash that enveloped the whole vehicle. Next to her, Maggie uttered a curse. Alex had to agree. They might be out of the frying pan now, but the fire was even hotter.


	9. Level 5 - Urban Warfare: Part II

An overwhelming sense of vertigo nearly knocked Alex off her feet… because she was standing? She was standing and inside a room. The vehicle she’d been driving was nowhere to be seen, and outside the whistle of a missile far off - but not far enough - hissed through the air before some other building was struck, making bits of debris rain down. They were back in the active combat zone. It was hard to say if it was a frying pan versus fire analogy, however, because everything was going to hell.

Even as she regained her center, Alex felt something. It was hard to describe, but her eyes automatically turned down just in time to see the leather vest changing into the more familiar black and blue bodysuit that she had been wearing previously. Shoulder guards dissolved and instead began to flow down over her shoulders, merge in the middle, and form into a hood whilst her leather vambraces and shin guards turned into the much more flexible but sturdy armor of the black and blue vigilante suit she had been wearing. 

Calling up her inventory, she was relieved to see that all of her old gear was back, and she let out a huge sigh of relief as she selected the faithful M16 A2 and felt its reassuring weight in her hands as it appeared. Doing a quick visual sweep of the immediate area even as she brought the assault rifle up to her shoulder, verified that both Maggie and Lord had made it through, but Lord’s form was a changing blur. 

His leather outfit was changing and fading away into something else instead. Within a matter of seconds, his head had been shrouded in a white hood, and whilst he still had leather armor, it had changed in its style and appearance so that it now covered his arms and shoulders whilst thick leather vambraces covered both arms and concealed dual hidden blades on spring mechanisms. Thick leather belts criss crossed over his torso with two ancient looking pistols in holsters on his chest and another two down by his hips alongside two cutlasses… no not cutlasses, Alex realised. Sabers of some kind - but not those fantasy light ones. Actual steel sabers from the eighteenth century. Beneath the leather he was wearing a white and pale blue eighteenth century naval jacket, complete with tails and a white silk shirt with billowing sleeves. A red sash around his waist, beige pants and dark knee length leather boots finished off the ensemble, along with a metal skull belt buckle that sat over his right shoulder.

Catching her watching him curiously, Max tilted his hooded head to one side, taking in her own hooded outfit with a smirk. “Very nice, Agent Danvers.”

“Edward Kenway? Really?” Alex sighed, lowering her rifle so that it was aimed a few feet in front of her on the floor. 

Judging by the look he gave her, he was clearly impressed. "You know him? Agent Danvers, you are full of surprises aren't you."

“He’s a pirate.”

“What’s your point?”

Alex considered for a moment, then nodded. “He suits you. You’re both arrogant, greedy, selfish assholes who—” Alex’s words failed her, mid-sentence, when Maggie came into view as she surveyed their surroundings. In the time it took for her to complete one simple action, her own outfit had changed as well, back to the Commander Shepard N7 armor she was wearing from before. Alex had been expecting it, had seen the outfit before when they’d first met up in this horrendous war-torn nightmare of a level… and yet Alex still forgot how to breathe when seeing the detective in her new outfit. Well, her old outfit. There were form fitting plates of kevlar armor over the lightweight yet durable woven material along with the slightly thicker plates around her elbows, knees, shoulders, thighs and forearms. All of it was a carbon black color, with a single red stripe down her right arm from shoulder to wrist, and two thin white stripes on either side, plus a white ‘N7’ and a small red triangle over her right collar bone area. It was powerful, Maggie was powerful wearing it, and for the moment, Alex was dumbfounded.

“Hey, Danvers,” Maggie said, as she took up position, scanning their surroundings with a professionalism Alex had suddenly lost, “take a picture. It will last longer.” Then Maggie grinned, dimples making an appearance, and tossed Alex a wink. And though Alex felt her blush rise across the back of her neck, she denied nothing.

_“Great news, I finally got visual back as well, so I can take some screenshots for you if you—”_

“Shut up, Winn!” Alex growled quietly. Then clearing her throat, she turned to Max instead. “Map. Now.”

He raised an eyebrow at her beneath his own hood. “Excuse me?”

“My hands are full,” she nodded to the rifle in her hands. “And we need to see where we’re going. So call up your map.”

_“I can do that for—”_

“I asked Max to do it!” Alex snapped. “Just do your job and work on getting us out of here.” Raising her rifle to her shoulder once more, she stepped towards the doorway that would lead out onto the street. “I’m going to do a visual check of the area. Max, find us a way out. Maggie—” Alex glanced back, her brain failing her when she saw Maggie guarding the door, the detective’s back to them. That suit did wonders for her ass.

“Hmmm?” Maggie glanced back at Alex before returning to her guard duty. “What do you need?” 

_“You should ask her out.”_

“I swear to _God,_ Schott…” Alex growled.

_“Okay, okay, sorry. Jeez, just trying to help. If you don’t need me right now, I’m going to check in on J’onn and Supergirl, okay?”_

“Fine, just go do something that won’t piss me off.”

_“I’ll check back in later… but you should totally ask her out. Bye!”_

Alex bit back the response that tried to spring out from her gritted teeth. Maggie was looking at her again, and Alex realized she had never responded to Maggie’s earlier question. “Um, nothing,” she said, her mind too focused on murdering Winn, with a touch of female physique thrown in for her to keep her train of thought from derailing. “Just… keep watch just like that. Carry on.”

Maggie smiled back at her again, and if that wasn’t the prettiest smile she’d ever seen, she’d eat her own boot… or just shove it up Winn’s ass.

“It looks like we have two options,” Max said as he examined the overhead map he’d brought up. “There’s an open field north of us, and if we head up that street and go left, we can cut across the field. If we head south, we’ll have to make our way through city streets. Either way, they both meet up at one point due west. That must be the end of the level.”

Alex nodded, grateful for something goal related on which she could focus. “Well, the choice seems obvious.”

“City streets,” She and Maggie said together while Max said, “the field.”

There was silence for a moment as the two women stared at Max, whilst he stared back, before at last Alex raised one eyebrow at him. “The field? Do you have a death wish?”

“Do you?” He countered, pointing up at the map. “Those streets will be crawling with NPCs and traps.”

“And that field is out in the open with nowhere to take cover or hide!” Alex took a step towards Max, also pointing at his map with one hand, indicating the field. “We’ll be sitting ducks. Especially if that damned Black Hawk is still out there somewhere!”

“I say we go to the field and make a run for it. We’ll make better time and get off this level,” Max said.

“Make a run for it?” Alex scoffed. “Max, how many lives do you have left?"

"One," he said as he showed her his wrist.

"Right. And you want to make a run for it? You clearly have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, do you. Tell me Max, how many tactical teams have you led into battlegrounds like this one, huh? How many strike teams have you coordinated? How many missions have you been a part of? Making a run for it is not, and never will be, an option if you want to keep that one remaining life you have.”

“Why don’t we split up?” Maggie said, looking over her shoulder and pulling Alex and Max out of the beginning of a heated debate. “We each go where we want to go and meet at the next level.”

Alex considered for a moment, then shrugged, looking pointedly at Max. “Fine by me. I’m going through the city. I guess I’ll see you in the next level Max. Maggie?”

“I’m with you, Danvers. I guess you’re on your own, Max.” As Maggie turned her head back to the doorway, she threw a wink in Alex’s direction.

Alex tried to hide a smirk of her own as she turned back to the door in front of her. “Okay then, Mags, I’ll take point. You got my back? Sooner we get going, the better.”

“Wait, you’re leaving me?” Max scurried around in front of Alex, placing his body between hers and the exit. “You can’t leave me. You promised to stay with me and protect me.”

“No, we promised to lead you safely out of here,” Alex shook her head as she pushed past him, Maggie close behind. “We can’t force you to follow.”

“Agent Danvers, Alex!” Max hurried after them. “Look, I don’t think splitting up is a good idea. Why deal with twice as many enemies? Maybe we should just stick together.”

“We’re not going via the field,” Alex replied as she carefully edged out through the door, looking all around to check that it was clear and to assess the best route. Then she ducked back in. “Okay, there’s an overturned SUV across the road. Keep your head down and follow me.” She looked first to Maggie, “We use hand signals from now on— ” then she looked at Max, “ — so no more talking. Keep quiet. Got it?”

“What do you mean—” But Alex had moved out before Max could finish his question, and Maggie just lifted a finger to her lips before waving him to follow Alex out.

Assault rifle raised and finger hovering over the trigger, ready, Alex hurried across the street and knelt behind the overturned car that she’d mentioned, keeping watch round the side of it as she waited for the other two to catch up. Already, she’d spotted three men up ahead, though they were too far away for her to tell if they were NPCs or actual players. Judging by the number of real players they’d come across so far, however, the latter option was unlikely.

She looked back at Maggie, motioned down the street and held up three fingers. Then pointed to herself and made a few more hand gestures that would convey her meaning (she hoped). She was going to try and cut round behind the men and take out at least one if not two of them using stealth. Maggie then needed to take out the third before he could raise the alarm.

At Maggie’s nod, Alex called up her inventory and selected her knife and pistol instead, stowing her rifle briefly for the moment. Then she looked back round the SUV again, timed her move and, dropping into a low crouch, hurried across the short distance with her knife ready and her pistol for backup, just in case.

Thankfully, it wasn’t needed, and as she got closer, she could see the generic hashtag and numbers that were assigned to each NPC, confirming her suspicions that they weren’t real world players. That made it a hell of a lot easier for her to sneak up behind the first, grab him with one hand over his mouth even as she plunged the knife into his side, then laid him quietly down on the ground so that he wouldn’t alert the other two who still had their backs to her. 

Stepping over his body, she grabbed the second man in a similar fashion and dispatched him with relative ease. The third NPC must have been alerted by something, however, as he turned on her and with a shout raised his rifle.

She raised her own pistol towards him, before a wave of panic slammed into her. The damned pistol was empty! She’d used up all her ammo and hadn’t collected or looted any more. Damn it!

There was no time to grab her rifle from her inventory. There was no time to duck for cover. There was no… need to panic after all. Maggie appeared behind the guy, kicking out to the back of his knee. He collapsed down onto that knee, bringing him to her height as she struck out, grabbing his head to turn it even as she dragged her knife across his neck. He managed a gurgle as he grabbed his throat, blood streaming between his fingers before he collapsed forward, dead. Alex lifted her gaze from the corpse, watching Maggie’s quick nod and letting out the breath she’d been holding.

_Fuck me, that was close,_ she thought to herself, frantically looting the body of the NPC she was standing over. Coming away with a clip of ammo, which she loaded into her pistol, and an apple which she stowed for later. She felt a little easier, but not much.

At the sound of a scraping boot on the sidewalk behind her, Alex spun. Her weapon stopped, pointed at Max’s head - and wasn’t that tempting - as he stared, bug-eyed at her. Alex breathed another sigh and then pointed down to the last corpse, encouraging Max to search it even as Maggie was doing the same to her kill.

Though his face screwed up in distaste, Max knelt and searched the corpse. Soon enough, they were all ready to continue on their way, and Maggie pointed toward the alley and then patted her own chest. With a nod, Alex let Maggie take point. That ended up being a wise decision when Maggie easily found and pointed out a tripwire that, to Alex, faded into the background until it was made obvious. The trio made it safely forward, opening them to the last street before the next level.

This street was much the same as the others they’d encountered. Burnt out vehicle husks and debris dotted their path and made for the occasional hidey-hole along the way. Alex took lead again, securing each safe spot while Maggie and Max (okay, Maggie) covered her back. They were working like a well-oiled machine.

About halfway down the block, Maggie and Max had again reached Alex’s destination when the detective started to flash hand signals. She gestured at a storefront, her eyes, and then her inventory. It was a clear enough gesture. Maggie had seen something, something only viewable with her special skill, within the storefront, and it wasn’t NPCs. 

Alex glanced out at the area and then the surrounding street. The storefront was about twenty feet away with no cover near it. It was wide open. Though Alex saw no one on the streets that meant nothing. All of her senses were telling her the store was too exposed, too convenient, and most likely a trap.

With a sharp shake of her head, Alex pointed out at the street and then shook again. Maggie just nodded, not seeming to need any convincing as she was likely thinking the same thing but was doing her best to keep Alex informed. It was the kind of teamwork and professionalism Alex worked hard to establish with other agents, and finding it so readily in this stranger was surprising but in the best ways.

“Do you see a cache?” Max whispered, interrupting Alex’s attempt to scope out their next, best move. “We should check it—”

Alex had her finger less than an inch from his face, though she was tempted to point the pistol at him again. The sudden movement seemed to shock him because he stilled, watching her carefully. She just shook her head and raised her finger to her own lips, adding something else to the list of things she planned to yell at him about once they got out of here. She was probably on page three, by now.

When a glint from one of the rooftops caught Alex’s attention, she raised her rifle. It looked like a reflection from some glass, and in the real world it could have been any number of things from a piece of broken bottle to the scope of a sniper’s rifle. Given that they were in a video game, she assumed sniper. Before she could aim and have a better look in that direction, someone moved next to her, breaking cover. Fucking Max Lord!

Even as a red light, the telltale mark of a sniper’s laser targeting system, appeared on Max’s chest, Alex saw Maggie jump into action. The detective tackled Max as there was a loud gunshot, then Alex spun, stepped from cover, and took aim at the glint on the rooftop across the street. When her own shot was followed by a body falling several stories to the street below, she allowed herself a split-second of silent celebration before turning to read Max the riot act.

“Are you fucking stupid?!” She snapped, storming over to where he and Maggie were sprawled on the ground. Max was picking himself back up again, though his hood had fallen down, and he was dusting himself down. “What the actual fuck did you think you were doing?! This was so clearly a trap, and had it not been for Maggie—” Alex turned to motion to the detective and froze.

A red bar was blinking furiously above a very still and unmoving Maggie as she lay on the floor, the health meter dropping further and further at an alarmingly rapid pace.

“Fuck!” Alex was on her knees in seconds, scooping Maggie’s head into her lap. “No! No no no no no, come on, Maggie, don’t you do this to me. Not now. Come on, let’s go. Let’s get back up. Come on, Mags.” She couldn't see the gunshot wound, but in games like this they weren't always visible. Still, she knew exactly what had happened. Fumbling for Maggie’s wrist, Alex pulled up Maggie’s detailed stats. Her health was at 20%... 17%... 15%...

“Fuck!” Alex scrambled frantically for her own inventory to try and grab one of her health tonics, only to find that all she had was the apple she’d looted earlier. It wasn’t enough. “No! Come on, Maggie, don’t you dare die on me now. Don’t you dare! You stay with me, you hear? You stay!”

Maggie’s eyes flickered open, momentarily giving Alex a glimmer of hope. Then the detective reached up, her fingertips brushing Alex’s face, and she struggled out the words, “Go… home.” Then her hand dropped, and her eyes closed again. Even the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest stilled as she became a weight - a _dead_ weight - in Alex's arms.

“Maggie?” Alex whispered, struggling around the sudden lump in her throat, as she stared down at the detective in her arms. “Maggie? Maggie! Oh God no, please Maggie. Please. Don’t leave me. Not now. Not like this. I… I’m...I...” She couldn’t find the words, and her voice failed her as a sob escaped, followed by another and then another. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, then started slow, silent trails down her cheeks as each breath became a shuddering, ragged motion punctuated by even more sobs. Laying Maggie’s lifeless form down carefully and reverently on the ground, Alex leaned over and placed a gentle kiss to the detective’s forehead. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

_“Alex, good news. J’onn and Supergirl have found Detective Sawyer’s apartment and— What’s wrong with the camera view? Why is it blurry? Wait, are you crying? Is… Oh my God. Is she… dead?”_

Taking another deep, shuddering breath and wiping away a few tears, Alex rose silently to her feet, grabbed her pistol from the holster at her thigh and spun quickly, aiming it toward Max as he stood in the entrance to the store.

“No!” He screamed, throwing his arms over his head and ducking in a futile effort to protect himself, even as Alex opened fire.

In unison, three NPC hostiles who had emerged from inside the store, and had perhaps been waiting to ambush them, dropped down dead behind Max, as Alex quickly palmed away a few more tears to clear her vision again. Then she stalked forwards as Max slowly rose to his feet once more.

“Oh, God. I thought you were going to kill me.”

_“Me too.”_

Still, Alex said nothing, as she reached out, grabbed Max by one of his leather belts, and tossed him onto the hood of a nearby, burnt out pick-up truck, the muzzle of her pistol pressed right between his eyes.

_“Alex, don’t do this.”_

“Shut up, Winn.” Alex pulled back the hammer on her pistol and pushed harder on her weapon, Max’s skin white around the muzzle from the lack of blood flow.

“You can’t do this.” Though by the look in his eyes, Max wasn’t so sure.

“You’re wrong, and it’s going to be your last mistake. I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else… ever again.”

_“Alex, stop! Stop, or I’ll yank you out of the game again.”_

“Shut the fuck up, Agent Schott! That’s an order.” Then the anger fled from Alex, and a calm detachment, a resignation to what she had to do, took its place. “Goodbye, Max, and good riddance.”

Max’s eyes grew slightly wider, if that was possible, and he screamed, “You can still save her!”

Alex’s finger had been closing on the trigger, but she hesitated. Then her brows dipped. “You’d say anything to save your own skin. Why should I believe you?”

“I have an item, something in my inventory, and you can use it to save her, but you have to hurry.” Max wet his lips and took a heavy swallow. “You can kill me or save her… your choice.”

Alex glared into his eyes for a moment, searching for the lie. When she couldn't detect one, she took a deep breath then reluctantly stepped back, letting go of him, as she decocked the hammer of the pistol with an audible click. "If you're lying to me, Max, so help me I _will_ end you."

“I’m not lying, not about this.” He opened up his inventory, his hand hovering over his options. “If I give this to you and she lives, I want your word you’ll get me out of here safely.”

“If it works,” Alex growled, as she lowered the pistol so that it was aimed at the ground between them, “then I won’t kill you. You have my word on that.”

_“Guys, if you’re going to do something, do it now. J’onn and Supergirl are doing CPR on Detective Sawyer, but she’s not responsive.”_

Max nodded, selecting something in his inventory which then appeared in his hand. It was a potion, but unlike the health potions Alex had used, this one was streaked with multiple colors and shimmered slightly. He held it out to Alex. “It’s a maximum health potion for me, but for you,” he gestured toward her medical patch, “it’s also a revive.”

“A revive?” Alex reached out and took it from him. “How?” As she studied the item in her hand, she felt a glimmer of something inside her. A spark of hope. Almost afraid to encourage this spark, she looked back up at Max again, waiting for the catch, and because she was holding a health tonic in her hands she could now see his life bar above his head. He was on 94%.

Glancing down to Maggie showed exactly what Alex knew she was going to see - a health bar on 0%. What she hadn’t expected to see, however, was a timer counting down seconds just above the health bar. 25 seconds… 24 seconds… 23 seconds…

“Max?” Alex looked back at him frantically, finally understanding what he’d meant when he said they didn’t have much time. 20 seconds. “What do I do?”

“You have to mix it with any hit point increasing item. That’s what I read, but my skill set is hacker not healer.” Then Max shrugged, not helping at all.

“But I don’t have any—” Alex started, as she glanced back down at Maggie again. 15 seconds. “Apple!” It came to her all of a sudden like a bolt out of the blue, and she frantically called up her inventory, grabbing the apple with her free hand. Then out of sheer desperation and the fact she was rapidly running out of time, she pressed the two items together in her hands, half expecting the bottle to smash and the apple the mush into a pulp. But neither of those things happened. Instead, the apple vanished, and the bottle of tonic glowed a bright, sparkling, glittering gold. It was like bottled sunlight (if that was even possible).

Not wasting any time, Alex dropped to her knees beside Maggie and tilted the bottle, pressing it against Maggie’s lips. “Come on, please work, please work, please work,” she chanted quietly under her breath. The timer continued to count down, however, and the lower it counted, the quicker Alex’s heart began to race.

When the bottle vanished from her hand and the timer reached zero, she sucked in a sharp breath. Had it worked? Why was nothing happening? She couldn’t have been too late, surely?! Unless…

“Liar!” She stood up quickly, snatching up her pistol again and rounding on Max, even as she drew the hammer back once more and raised it to eye level. “You fucking liar!”

“No! I swear!” Max threw his hands up in surrender, not that it was going to do him any good. “The documents said it would work!”

Even as Alex’s finger put pressure on the trigger, a loud gasp from behind made her turn. With her hand pressed to her chest, Maggie sat up, wide-eyed but very much alive.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Maggie said slowly, as she rubbed her chest in a circular motion. “What the fuck happened? It feels like an elephant stepped on my chest.”

_“Alex, she’s back! Detective Sawyer, Maggie, they have a pulse, and she’s breathing on her own again.”_

With trembling hands, Alex jammed her pistol back into the holster at her belt, dropped to her knees beside Maggie for a third time, and with a gentle hand on either side of the detective’s face, Alex leaned in and pressed her lips to Maggie’s. It wasn’t a delicate kiss so much as a fumbled, desperate, relieved mess of a kiss. But even so, it was purely instinctual, and Alex surprised herself with her actions, perhaps even more so than it surprised any of the others.

When her brain finally caught up to what she was doing, she pulled back quickly. “Oh fuck, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean… well I mean I did, but I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”

Maggie went from an expression of surprise to another of her trademarked, mischievous smiles. She grabbed Alex by the shirtfront, pulling Alex in until their lips connected again. This kiss was more sure, less messy, but equally emotional. Their lips slotted together, and Maggie’s tongue snuck out to tease across Alex’s bottom lip. Too soon they separated again, a breathless Alex staring back at Maggie’s grin.

Running her thumb along Alex’s bottom lip, Maggie said, “Took you long enough.”

_“It sure did.”_

Alex ignored Winn, a smile spreading across her face as she pushed some loose hairs behind Maggie’s ear. “You’re alive.”

“I’ll take your word for that.” Maggie held her hand out. “Help me up? This being dead thing takes a lot out of you.”

Alex grabbed Maggie’s hand, helping the detective to her feet but refusing to let go of that hand, that tether proving Maggie was indeed real. “I just can’t believe you’re alive. I thought I lost you.”

Maggie wrapped her free hand around Alex’s that still gripped hers, and Alex mirrored the gesture. “Nah, you’re not getting rid of me that easily, Danvers. You’re stuck with me.”

Alex swallowed hard, staring into Maggie’s eyes with their hands wrapped together. “I think I’d be okay with that.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Max said. “Not that this isn’t touching, and not that I don’t appreciate the show, but could you two maybe save this little display of this sapphic soap opera until we’re not stuck in a murderous video game?”

“Shut up Max!” Alex and Maggie snapped at him in unison. Then they both looked back at one another and grinned, even as Maggie reached up and gently wiped away the last of Alex’s tears from her cheeks with the pad of her thumb. 

“Were you crying?”

“Nah, it was just one of those gaming glitches,” Alex chuckled. 

Maggie shook her head, still grinning. “Jerk.”

Alex grinned as well as she took Maggie’s hand gently from her cheek, then placed a tender kiss in Maggie’s palm. “We should get going, before Max opens his big mouth again and I shut it for him. Permanently.”

Max, who had indeed opened his mouth, simply glared at her then shut it again. Maggie pointed to the store front and the room full of caches inside. “We should gear up. This place was put here for a reason, so we should make the most of it.”

“Agreed,” Alex nodded. “Only take what you can carry, don’t bother with any junk. I’m not sure there’ll be any more market places where we can sell it, so we should just take what is needed and leave the rest.”

After Maggie had looted each cache for them and laid the contents out on the floor, they quickly divided up everything they deemed necessary, whilst leaving the ‘junk’ in a pile to one side. Some items they had never seen before, but with Winn’s help as he studied the notes for the game, he was able to explain the items and help them to decide who should take what.

_“That thing Max is holding is a Medical Belt. It increases the carrying capacity of health tonics, but can only be worn by a medic.”_

“Max, that one’s mine,” Alex called over to him, then held up a hand. He threw the item to her and she clipped it round her waist. A series of small glowing tubes appeared and when she touched a blue one, a minor health tonic appeared in her hand. She passed it to Max, who used it to refill his health completely.

“You should take these too, Danvers,” Maggie pointed to a small pile of health tonics, and Alex recognised them as blue minor ones that refilled between 5 to 10% of health, green major ones that refilled up to 75% of health and also the multi colored ones she now recognised as maximum health which restored 100% in anyone else’s hands, but in hers could restore a life completely. As they’d all recently found out. Considering they were all one their last life, she reasoned this could come in extremely handy… unless she was the one who lost her last life. The other two couldn’t create revives like she could. So she’d just have to be extremely careful.

The various types of ammunition were also divided up between them, based on their chosen firearms. Maggie took five grenades, attaching them to her own belt. 

Because Alex had taken the Medic’s Belt, the Health Regeneration Amulet was given to Maggie to wear, and as Winn explained, it would slowly regenerate 1% of her health every thirty seconds if it dropped below 80%. Max took the Ring of Stamina which was similar to Maggie’s health amulet but regenerated stamina rather than health. 

Once they were all set and ready to go, Alex took point once again, with Max in the middle and Maggie bringing up the rear. 


	10. Level 6 - Doomsday

The now familiar gong sounded as they stepped away from the city and towards a wide, wooden drawbridge that crossed an equally as wide chasm. The moat, when Alex glanced down into it, was full of… wait, was that a fin she saw? Down in the water?

Maggie and Max joined her at the railings as they watched an almost perfect scene from one of the Jaws movies unfold before them, the shark’s fin slicing effortlessly through the surface of the water as it headed for something in the distance. Was that a body floating on the surface? Alex could only look on with a cold chill of dread as the Great White snatched up the body and dragged it below the surface in a cloud of crimson that bloomed out into the water, the only trace as the ripples died away that anything had even happened.

“I seriously hope that was an NPC,” Max muttered, unconsciously echoing Alex’s own thoughts. 

“Let’s make sure we don’t take a swan dive into that water,” Maggie agreed as she stepped back away from the edge and studied the bridge. “No red, but then given what happened in level… what was it? Four? I don’t really know what to think any more.”

“Then we take it slow and steady,” Alex placed a reassuring hand on Maggie’s shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. “Together.”

Expecting some sort of remark or comment from Max, both ladies turned… to find him halfway across the drawbridge already.

“I’m going to kill him,” Alex growled. “I am actually going to fucking kill him.”

Maggie’s head tilted to one side, and she frowned. “Uh… why did the music just change?”

Alex paused and listened as well. The music, which had just been white noise to her up until now, had definitely changed. This new music was deeper, full of drums and it just felt… bad.

“Oh, that can’t be good. Please tell me this isn’t a—" Alex started, just as a gigantic dragon soared overhead, belching out a stream of flames that had all three of them hitting the deck as it swooped low, vicious claws outstretched. Thankfully it missed them all as it rose back up into the skies again in an elegant arc.

“It is,” Alex groaned. “It’s a boss level. Fuck.”

“Ladies, I suggest we make a hasty retreat to one side or the other before that beast comes back again,” Max called, and seeing no better alternatives, the two of them scrambled back to their feet, locked hands and ran as fast as their statistics would carry them towards the brick archway set into the side of a huge, impossibly tall stone wall on the far side of the bridge. 

Ducking under the stone arch just as the dragon came back round for a second pass, they caught their breaths, and Alex felt herself being scrutinised. Turning to find Max staring her up and down, she glared at him. “Something wrong, Lord?”

“You won’t last five minutes against that monster, dressed like that,” he shrugged after a moment, calling up his inventory and scrolling through it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means that compared to Detective Sawyer and I, your armor is next to nothing.”

“You can talk. All you’ve got is some leather arm bands.” Even as Alex spoke, she watched Max select a new outfit from his inventory and his pirate gear changed in the blink of an eye to be replaced by a very familiar and very heavy set of armor that she immediately recognised as a Spartan from the HALO games. 

_ “Hey, isn’t that—" _

“Not another word, Winslow,” Alex growled again, ducking back as the dragon’s snout appeared beneath the archway and it snapped and snarled at the three of them. They all backed away, and as the dragon gave up and disappeared again, Alex hated to admit it but now, when she compared herself to the other two who were both considerably armed and armored, she felt suddenly very vulnerable. But what could she do? Her choices of outfit were limited to three and she was already wearing the best of the lot.

“Agent Danvers?” Max was holding something out to her that looked like a folded square of fabric. “Here, take this.”

“What is it?” She asked suspiciously. She couldn’t see his face beneath his full face helmet now, but his voice was surprisingly soft when he spoke again.

“It’s an outfit. I collected it a while back but never had any intention of wearing it. It’s not my style. But it’s a lot more robust and armored than your current outfit. I know you and I don’t exactly see eye to eye, but believe it or not, I don’t actually want anything to happen to you. Besides, I owe you for the whole sniper incident. Consider this a part of my apology? Please?”

Alex wanted to protest and refuse to take the thing on principle alone, but she knew that she was just being stubborn and petty if she did that. Could she really afford to let her feelings get in the way, right at this very moment in time? A quick glance at Maggie, who nodded, and Alex’s mind was made up. 

She took the item from Max and when an option appeared to either “wear” or “store” the outfit, she chose to wear it. 

At first, she didn’t notice much difference. Sure, the blue patternings on her outfit changed and some silver joined it, specifically around her shoulders and upper arms, but then her shoulders became thicker as armored pads appeared. Thick gauntlets covered both forearms, and her chest became tighter as it was drawn in, held beneath a thick armored chest plate that stretched all the way round under her arms and attached to a back plate as well. Thick padding on her thighs and across her knees also appeared, she felt something long flow down from her shoulders and realised that it was a cape, even though she still kept her hood. The final and probably the most obvious difference was the helmet that appeared, enclosing her head in a full face helmet with built in breathing apparatus across the nose and mouth, and a large visor that didn’t hinder or reduce her visibility, but protected her from the elements.

Maggie’s mouth was hanging open in awe, and even Max’s own helmeted head was tilted in what Alex presumed was appreciation, but she couldn’t be sure. Holding her hands out in front of herself to get a better look, she happened to just glance up once more and caught her reflection in Max’s own mirrored visor.

_ “No way!” _ Winn was in full fanboy mode now, she could tell from the tone of his voice. He really was enjoying this game far too much.  _ “That’s a Hunter outfit from Destiny! Although, hold on. Yeah it’s been modified. Awesome!” _

Calling up her stats, Alex could see that whilst she’d kept her speed stats from the previous outfit, this one had also upgraded her armor to almost, but not quite double what it had been previously. At least now she stood a much better chance of walking away from this game in one piece. And alive, which was the main thing.

She took a deep breath, then turned to Max, her voice when she spoke being a mixture of both sincerity and gratitude. “Thank you.” 

“Like I said, I owe you. Shall we?” He motioned with one hand into what she presumed was a courtyard beyond. There was no sign of the dragon any more, but this was a boss level, and if the dragon was the boss, then he’d be back.

And sure enough, as they stepped out into the huge courtyard that was surrounded on all sides by even more imposing brick walls leaving them with no way out, a portcullis slammed shut behind them, cutting off their way back to the drawbridge.

“That figures,” Max groaned, even as Alex turned her eyes and her gun to the skies, waiting for what she was pretty sure was the inevitable arrival of the level boss. 

“No going back now,” Maggie agreed, as the three of them closed ranks, each facing in a different direction to try and cover as much of the area visually as possible. 

_ “Hey, whoa, what’s that?” _

“What’s what?” Alex frowned, her eyes darting all about.

_ “Jeez, stay still! I’m getting seasick just watching.” _

“Winn!”

Ignoring the odd looks she was getting from the other two, Alex took a deep breath, then looked around more slowly until Winn spoke again.

_ “That! There! Why is there a sword in a stone?” _

“Because…” Alex shrugged. “Maybe whoever designed this game is a King Arthur nerd?”

_ “I think you’ll find they call themselves Arthurians.” _

“I think you’ll find I don’t give a shit. Unless it’s of any use to us, it can stay where it is. We’re in a boss level, Winn. We need stuff that is actually going to be useful to us.”

“Agent Danvers, as amusing as your one sided conversations with your guy on the outside are, we have company,” Max pointed his rifle to the sky where the gigantic dragon was slowly descending. 

The three of them spun to face it, weapons raised and ready, when Alex noticed something that hadn’t been there before. Or rather someone. On the dragon’s back. 

“Who the fuck’s that?” Maggie’s voice came from somewhere to Alex’s left.

Alex never had been one to sit through all the monologue cutscenes when she was playing a game. She always skipped ahead, even when she didn’t mean to. It was just a habit that Winn constantly berated her for.

Even now, he was tutting in her ear. _ “You should be paying attention. I bet he’s got some really long and complex backstory that will totally make sense in the context of the game.” _

“I’m trying to find a way to survive,” she hissed back. “I don’t have time for his backstory crap.”

“What’s going on?” Maggie muttered quietly. 

“I can’t move, so we must be in another cutscene. All I can do at the moment is look around,” Max added. 

“Okay, has he actually said anything useful so far?” Alex sighed.

“I don’t think so,” Maggie said.

“Just about the sword belonging to his ancient enemy and now it is his trophy. He’s also going to keep our heads as similar trophies,” Max supplied after a moment.

“Charming.”

_ “Told you the sword was the key!” _

Against her better judgement, Alex sighed again. “How is it?”

“How is what—" Maggie started, but Alex cut across her, not wanting to be rude but not knowing how else to do it.

“Casper says the sword is the key.”

“Makes sense.” 

Wait, Max was agreeing with her? She glanced sideways at him, still unable to move anything other than her eyes. How long was this cut scene?!

“Explain.”

_ “Me or Mr Lord?” _

“Anyone!”

“The sword belonged to the only person who ever came close to beating him.” Both Max and Winn spoke in unison and Alex blinked for a moment, then shook her head. 

“That was freaky. Please don’t do that - hey, wait, I can move!”

“Me too,” Maggie suddenly appeared in front of Alex. 

“Ladies, you both need to  _ move _ !” Max was already running, even as the gigantic tail of the dragon came down straight towards them. They both dived to the side, Alex going right, Maggie going left, and the tail slammed into the ground between them. 

“What’s the plan, Danvers?” Maggie had rolled onto her knees and was already firing at the dragon.

From off to the far left, Max was doing the same. Alex scrambled back to her own feet, thinking quickly.

“Have either of you got any experience with a sword?”

Alex was met with simultaneous shakes of heads from both the other two. 

“Ok. Then you both need to deal with the dragon. I’ll take Lord...Whats-His-Face.”

_ “Doomsday.” _

“What?”

_ “That’s his name. Lord Doomsday.” _

“Great, thanks,” Alex couldn’t hide the sarcasm from her voice as she dived out of the way of a swiping claw.

Seeing that Maggie and Max had already started to coordinate an attack against the dragon, Alex wasted no more time and sprinted across the open gap, leapt over the flailing tail of the dragon again, and grabbed onto the sword in the stone with both hands. Heaving with all her might, expecting heavy resistance, she staggered backwards as the sword came free of its stone housing almost immediately. 

Ignoring Winn’s nerdgasm and sudden frantic ramblings about King Arthur and swords in stones and such, she spun the blade in her hand once or twice to get a feel for it. It was well balanced, lightweight but not at all flimsy and it had a slightly blue tint along the blade.

“Blue is clue,” she grinned to herself, twirling it up into a defensive stance in front of herself, just as Lord Douchebag advanced upon her, drawing a sword from the baldrick over his shoulder.

So this was it then. Sword on sword. She was suddenly extremely grateful for all the hours of practice she’d put in at the DEO with swords, despite the fact she’d very rarely had to use them up until this moment. 

Looking Lord Douchebag straight in the eye, she offered him a confident smile. “Let’s dance.”

He didn’t need a second invitation and struck out almost immediately.

She stood firm as his blade speared straight forwards, aiming for her midriff. Then she swung her own blade in a downwards arc, knocking his aside. His momentum carried him forward within her reach, and she let go of her sword with one hand, throwing all her weight into the motion as she slammed her fist into his face. He staggered backwards, the bar of green above his head dropping ever so slightly, and she quickly dropped into a defensive crouch, sword ready to intercept his next attack.

The next few blows were traded without incident, the pair of them testing one another's defences. But Alex knew she had to be careful. Doomsday was an NPC, and as such, he was controlled by a computer. This meant he didn’t know fear. He didn’t know emotions, full stop. This made him reckless. And this recklessness made him unpredictable. One wrong move and she could end up seriously hurt. Or worse. Considering neither of the others could create revives, she needed to be careful. 

Again, more blows were traded both with fists and steel, and Alex decided she wasn't going to fight fairly. Doomsday certainly had no intention of doing so, and she'd only get herself killed if she did, so it was time to play it his way.

When another opening presented itself, she kicked out as hard as she could, catching him in the stomach. He was thrown back by the force she'd managed to put into the kick and back peddled furiously, his arms flying wide, swivelling in windmill motions as he fought furiously to remain upright. A small percentage of his green health bar dipped, but not a lot.

Before she could advance on him, however, a fireball erupted between them.

“Sorry!” Maggie called out from nearby as she ducked and rolled under the swiping claws of the gigantic dragon whilst Max was distracting it by emptying an entire clip into its huge gaping maw.

Alex was drawn back into her own battle when Doomsday charged forward and swung for her again, a downwards arc intending to cleave her head in two this time. But she was ready. Bringing her sword up horizontally, she blocked his attack. Although the blade held firm, it jarred her arms, sending a shock-wave of pain rippling from her wrists to her shoulders. Her legs buckled from the sheer impact, causing her to drop to her knees, but it also seemed not to be what Doomsday was expecting. By his reaction, it seems he had expected her to either jump out of the way or die beneath his sword. He reeled backwards, taking pressure off Alex's blade and allowing her to free one hand from the hilt. Taking sudden advantage of this, she drew her sidearm and let off several rounds into his stomach, watching his health bar drop lower and lower with every round. Not low enough, though. She still had a long way to go.

Rising back to her feet again, she stepped forwards, taking one step for every step he backed away, neither of them flinching as flames erupted from the dragon all around in fits and spurts.

When he went for her again, she was ready. Nothing was wasted. No flourishes or balletic leaps. Every swing a death blow countered. As Doomsday's desperation and Alex's determination grew more and more with each blow they traded, the rapidity of the exchange soon became breathless. The blades hissed as they split the air. Both combatants swung with such power that sparks flew whenever one blade scraped another. They moved so fast that they were often just blurs, and whilst it was obvious that Doomsday was the stronger of the two, Alex was the quicker, using speed and agility to aid her where she lacked the strength to meet his attacks head on.

But soon the terrain became far too unstable for her to use speed to her advantage any more, and she was forced to slow again to be more careful and mind her surroundings.

Doomsday mistook this for fatigue, however, and the game must have sensed an advantage because he stepped in too close. Alex saw her opening, seized the opportunity, and slashed out. Doomsday jumped back at the last possible moment, but it was still too late, and the tip of her blade tore across his chest, ripping leather and fabric, slicing into flesh and drawing deep crimson blood instantaneously, as he lost a significant amount of his health bar, and it now dipped into yellow.

He screamed again, hurling several profanities in her direction, then launched into a new attack, gearing up for a second wave of even more deadly combat as bosses often did, swinging with explosive fury. 

When the barrage was finished and he paused for breath, however, Alex was still standing, having parried everything whilst only taking a minor dip in health that a minor health tonic from her belt quickly fixed. 

Now it was her turn. Doomsday blocked and weaved his blade into a defensive shield, but more than once her sword found an opening and more and more of his health was taken away. 

Her blade sliced across his forearm, his health bar dropped into the red and he roared in fury. She answered by punching him with the hilt of her sword. 

He took several huge strides backwards and she took a quick moment to down another small health potion, taking herself back to 80% health, before realising her mistake.

He was a boss. He was down to the red. This could mean only one thing. He was about to unleash his most powerful and devastating attack yet.

Off to the side, Maggie and Max were making a surprisingly effective team. The dragon was almost defeated, but they were taking too long. They wouldn’t be able to help her. She was going to have to do this on her own.

So, steeling herself and trying to prepare for whatever was going to come next, she watched Doomsday like a hawk. Watching, waiting, trying to preempt his next move. 

_ “Hey, careful Alex, he’s gearing up for his big boss move.” _

“Yeah,” Alex nodded as she dropped into a half crouch, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she held her sword in front of herself, ready to move at a fraction of a moment’s notice. “And I have no idea what that move is.” 

_ “All you have to do is hold him off long enough for us to get you all out. We finally managed to get through Max’s defences and J’onn is with him now. Supergirl’s still with Maggie.” _

“How long, Winn?”

_ “I… I’m not sure.” _

Alex groaned, but it was quickly cut short as a laser beam of… well she wasn’t even sure what it was made of, but it was heading straight for her, so she had to dive to one side to avoid it. No sooner had she rolled back to her feet than another was heading for her, and then a third. This must have been Doomsday’s power move then.

Barely missing this second beam, she couldn't miss the third completely as it caught her foot with a searing, blinding flash of pain that caused her health to drop to the lower end of yellow. 

Drawing her pistol from her thigh holster, she let off a few rounds just as Doomsday was lining up his fourth beam. The bullets hammered into his shoulder, knocking him back and sending the beam wide, giving her just enough time to grab a major health potion and use it. 

Then she jammed the pistol back at her thigh and retook a two handed grip on the sword, just as he sprinted towards her, letting out a guttural war cry of rage.

Alex brought her blade up to block his, but with a sweeping movement that she wasn’t expecting, he knocked the blade from her hands, and it went skittering away behind him.

With a cry of surprise, Alex jumped backwards, thankfully her agility stats coming into play to help her place some distance between them. 

_ “Holy crap, Alex! Be careful!” _

Reaching over her back quickly, she drew her assault rifle and emptied her very last clip into his chest, forcing him backwards with each step even as his health bar blinked steadily lower and lower. But it still wasn’t enough! Fuck being a single player, having to deal with him  _ and _ the dragon! That really would be suicide.

“Come on, Alex, think, think,” she muttered to herself as she stashed her now useless rifle back in her inventory. All she had left were two pistols and the sword which was out of her reach. Unless…?

“Please don’t let me regret this,” she took a deep breath, then took off at a sprint, as fast as she could, straight for Doomsday himself.

_ “Alex?... Alex?!... ALEX!” _

Doomsday’s blade flashed towards her neck when she came within striking distance, but Alex had timed her own move perfectly and dropped to her knees, sliding beneath his outstretched arms in a pretty sweet knee slide, if she did say so herself. 

Coming up on the other side of him, she used the quickdraw feature to grab both pistols at once and used the dual wield function to fire them both simultaneously into Doomsday’s exposed back whilst she stepped back, and back, and back. 

As the guns smoked and clicked, the last of the rounds used and the clips empty, she dropped them to the floor, bent and grabbed up and the sword that was now within her reach, and then ran forwards again. 

“Danvers, incoming!” Maggie cried out from somewhere, just as the gigantic form of the dragon toppled into view, it’s head slamming into the ground barely ten feet in front of Alex, it’s eyes rolled back and it’s tongue lolling as tendrils of smoke snaked from it’s nostrils. 

Alex couldn’t avoid it, couldn’t swerve to go round it, so did the only thing she could.

She jumped.

Knowing full well she wouldn’t clear it in a single bound, she planted one foot on it’s skull and pushed again, giving herself an extra height advantage as she soared through the air. Turning the sword in her hands, blade pointing downwards in a two handed grip, she struck Doomsday with as much force as she could put behind the blade, driving it between his shoulder blades, her feet planting against the small of his back as he keeled forwards and she rode him down, hopping off at the last second and jogging a few paces thanks to the momentum of what she’d just done, before turning to look and see the damage. 

Doomsday lay face down on the ground, her sword impaled in his back, his health bar blinking dangerously low in the red zone. How he was still hanging on to that last tiny shredy of life, she didn’t know, but it was pretty much game over for him now.

“Agent!” Max called, and as she turned to him, he tossed her his pistol. She caught it and with one well placed shot to the back of the head, Doomsday was defeated.

And from the looks of things, so was his dragon. They’d done it!

This revelation took a few moments to settle in Alex’s mind, before she realised and backpedaled a few steps, letting out a shuddering breath.

“Holy shit.”

_ “You did it!” _ Winn exclaimed in her ear. _ “Alex, you did it!!” _

“No,” she breathed, shaking her head. “We did it. All of us. It was a team effort.” She looked to Maggie and Max who both nodded in agreement.

“Okay, so now what?” Maggie asked. “We killed the bad guy and slayed the dragon. Is there a maiden in a tower somewhere we need to rescue, maybe give a kid some magical beans for his cow?”

“Video games aren’t fairy tales, Mags,” Alex chuckled as she stepped back over to Doomsday’s lifeless body and placed one foot on his shoulder, then tugged the sword free with both hands. “Though saying that, I’m taking this with me, just in case.”

“Good idea,” Max said. He kicked over the body of Doomsday, who had fallen with his own sword underneath him, and reached down to grab the hilt. “You can’t be too safe in—” 

Max’s words cut off sharply. No sooner had he wrapped his hand around Doomsday’s sword when a doorway appeared on the far side of the courtyard, beyond the fallen dragon, the doors wide open and a golden light spilling out, beckoning them in.

As the music changed yet again in the background, the three of them walked towards the door together as Alex flipped her hood back and pulled off her helmet, tucking it under one arm as she carried her sword in her other hand, the flat of the blade resting on her shoulder in a very casual pose.

“Why are we walking so slowly?” Maggie asked after a few seconds when they hadn’t made it very far.

Alex chuckled, even as Max supplied an answer for her. “We’re in a cutscene, I believe.”

“For God’s sake. Another one?” Maggie grumbled, clearly not amused. “This place has more cutscenes than I have disgruntled ex-girlfriends.” Then she glanced over at Alex and added, “Not really. Most of my exes are comfortably gruntled.”

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the doorway which led to a set of stairs beyond. The stairs led up towards a glittering golden light that spilled out from another doorway at the top.

With Alex and Max wielding their swords and Maggie her shotgun, they ascended the stairs side by side, thankful that they were wide enough to allow them to do that. 

_ “Hey, it looks like you’re coming to the end of the game now. You good for me to go and try and find out the details of the other gamers still in the tutorial level and see if we can get them out as well?” _

“Please do,” Alex nodded. “One of the gamers is called Frances. We met her at the start and she was the one who was stopping any other gamers from entering the game by keeping them safe in the tutorial. If you can find her, she can then tell you how to find the others.”

_ “Consider it done. See you when you get out. Good luck!” _

“Thanks, Winn.”

As they reached the top of the stairs and passed through the open doorway, the room opened out into a gigantic hall full of golden light that was streaming in through the abundance of floor to ceiling windows dotted along the left hand side of the room at strategic intervals. Intricately carved columns of marble stood all around the room, but most predominantly on the right hand side, holding up the gracefully curved dome ceiling whilst channels in the polished marble flooring provided gaps large enough for beds of bright red and white flowers to bloom. 

At the very far end of the room, in front of a set of stained glass windows that resembled a setting sun, sat a glittering golden throne on top of a raised marble dais, with three steps leading up to it. Plush red velvet cushions sat on the throne and a few intricately embroidered red banners and tapestries fluttered from the marble pillars in a light breeze that was coming from an open window. Considering the amount of gold and marble that was in the room, it should have been tacky or ostentatious. But in actual fact, it was elegant and stunningly beautiful.

“So… how do we get out of here?” Maggie voiced what Alex had been thinking.

“We should split up. Search the room. There must be something that can get us out of here,” Alex replied as her eyes turned from the polished floors to the cavernous domed ceiling high above. 

The three of them fanned out to search. Max headed straight for the throne at the far end, whilst Alex took the pillars on the right and Maggie took the windows on the left.

“I think I found something,” Max said.

“Like a red glowing sign that says exit?” Maggie asked as she made her way back to him.

“No, but there’s some sort of slot here, next to the throne. It almost looks like…” He pulled the sword out of his inventory and pushed it into the slot even as Alex called out a warning, but nothing happened. “The hole is too big.”

Alex clearly heard Maggie mumble, ‘That’s what she said,’ but ignored it and headed over to the slot near Max. “Yeah, pull that out. Let me try my sword.” She glanced over at Maggie as she grabbed the sword from her inventory, her warning, “Don’t say it,” seemed to come just in time based on the mischievous look on the detective’s face.

Unfortunately, Alex’s sword was also too small. It fit in easily enough, but there was space all around it, and it didn’t feel like it had reached bottom. It wasn’t ‘spoon in a tea cup’ loose, but it was clearly not made for this space.

“Okay, that’s not it either. What are we missing?” Alex asked.

“May I?” Maggie stepped forward, glanced at the slot, took a long, hard look at Max’s sword and then Alex’s. Alex could practically hear the gears grinding in Maggie’s head as the astute detective’s brain went to work on the problem. Finally, Maggie held out both hands in a ‘come hither’ gesture. “Give me both your swords.”

Alex offered hers up without question, but Max didn’t budge. 

“They won’t both fit,” he said.

With Alex’s sword in one hand, Maggie snapped the fingers on her empty hand. “Don’t make me make another ‘that’s what she said’ joke, buddy. Just hand over the sword.”

Reluctantly, Max did so.

Maggie studied both weapons, looking at them on one side and then the other. She laid them down and ran her fingers down the blade and across the engraved hilts. 

Alex leaned over Maggie’s shoulder. “What are you looking for?”

“I’ll let you know when I find it. What I’m thinking is— hold up. There you are.” She grinned up at Alex. “Found it.”

“I don’t see anything,” Max said as he broke into their little bubble.

“That’s because you’re not looking like a detective.” Maggie pointed out three engraved spots on Max’s sword and then three raised symbols on Alex’s. Now that she had raised awareness of them, it was clear that one was the engraving of the symbols on the other. “It’s a puzzle. And I think it goes together like… this.”

Maggie lined up the symbols on both swords and laid one down on top of the other. They glowed blue for a moment, and then there was a bright, white light that had them all covering their eyes. It only lasted for a few seconds, and when it died down and they looked back again, where two swords had been was one larger sword.

“Dibs,” Max said, swooping in and grabbing the sword before either lady could stop him. With a smug look on his face, he thrust it into the slot. It fit perfectly, and the whole throne glowed blue, but nothing else happened. “I know.” Without hesitation, Max sat on the throne, head raised and looking like an arrogant ruler. It suited him, but nothing else happened. No exit appeared, no music changed, no credits rolled. They were clearly missing a step. “What the hell do we have to do now?”

“Not we, her,” Maggie thumbed over at Alex. “You didn’t pull the sword from the stone, and you didn’t kill the guy with the sword. It’s not your throne buddy, so get up.”

Rather hesitantly, and muttering unpleasantries to himself, Max removed himself from the throne.

Smirking at him, even as she turned to Maggie, Alex held out her helmet. “Would you mind?” Once she had handed it over, she then took the sword from Max and repeated the steps that he had just done, sliding the sword into the slot then taking a seat on the throne, the cape of her outfit spilling around her in a very regal manner.

There was another blinding flash and then two swirling, vortex-like portals appeared behind and to the side of the throne with glowing letters hanging in mid air above each. One read “Restart Game” and one read “Exit Game.”

With a triumphant smile at Maggie, Alex jumped up off the throne again. “You’re really getting the hang of this video game lore, you know,” she smiled proudly at the detective.

“Thanks,” Maggie winked at Alex, “I learned from the best. So, race you to the exit?”

“How about I walk you there?” Alex held out her hand which Maggie took, and together, they walked toward the exit. They were just a few steps away, Max having already sprinted by them and bolted through it in his rush to leave, when Alex stopped and pulled Maggie to a stop with her. “Hey, I just wanted to say… I’m sorry you got stuck in here, but I’m also glad. There’s no one I would have rather been stuck in a murderous video game with.”

“Aww, you getting soft on me, Danvers?” Those dimples popped, but the usual glint in Maggie’s eyes receded. “Honestly, same. I wouldn’t have made it through without you. I owe you my life more than once.”

“Hey, same here.”

“No, seriously, you came back. Stepping back into something like this for someone you just met, that takes a special kind of person, a hero, and I’m damn glad you were mine. I’ll never forget what you did, Danvers.”

“Then don’t.” Alex gripped Maggie’s hand a little tighter. “I’ll find you on the other side, okay?”

“You damn well better. Don’t make me go looking for you. You know I’ll find you.”

Alex chuckled. “Well, I wouldn’t want to be hunted down by you.” There was a moment then, a moment where it was clear they were alone, bathed in glowing light while music played in the background. It was a feeling Alex wasn’t ready to fully let go of, but reality beckoned. “Let’s do this.”

Maggie nodded, and hand in hand, they walked through the exit, leaving fantasy behind and returning to reality.

— GAME OVER —

  
  
  



	11. Endgame

The night was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The dinner had been amazing, the wine was superb, and the conversation between them both had flowed so naturally. It just felt right. The walk back afterwards was even better.

The air was cool, but not cold, though there was a slight snap to the air like winter was just around the corner and threatening to appear at any moment. But that just made everything fresh, alive, vibrant even. There was a gentle breeze, and the city was oddly calm and still for once. Almost as if it somehow knew that this night was important, and should not, under any circumstances, be interrupted.

As the two of them walked hand in hand, Alex kept stealing glimpses of the petite detective beside her. Although she had never been anything even remotely close to a romantic person in the past, and couldn’t stand all the gushy, mushy, fluffy crap that filled most of the rom-com, chick flick movies that Kara so loved to watch, Alex couldn’t help but think that this night was pretty much straight out of one of those movies. She didn’t want it to end, and as far as first dates went, this one was—

“So,” Maggie’s voice broke through Alex’s train of thoughts. “This is my ride.”

Alex glanced at the midnight black Dodge Charger SXT AWD 2016 that they had stopped beside, her eyes appraising it with keen interest. She nodded, impressed. “The perks of being a Detective, huh?”

“One of them,” Maggie agreed. For a moment neither of them moved. Or spoke. Just stood, a little awkwardly. A little sheepishly.

“I’ve had a really great—" Alex started, even as Maggie said “Thanks for a great—"

They both paused, and then laughed, some of the awkwardness fading. At last, Alex summoned up the courage to speak again, though she couldn’t look Maggie directly in the eye, even as she said, “Sorry I’m being…” Unable to find the right words, she settled with a shrug, hoping it would help to explain what her silence couldn’t. “I haven’t really dated in a while. I guess I’m just nervous.”

“You’re nervous?” Maggie’s voice was incredulous, and Alex finally allowed her eyes to look up, into the sparkling brown orbs of the petite Detective, whose dimples were in fine form this evening. “The girl who fought a polar bear and jumped over a raging pit of lava in an active volcano is nervous? Impossible.”

Alex couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped her then. “Believe it or not, both polar bears and volcanoes were covered in my training manual. This, dating, I’m just on my own.”

With one of those extremely disarming head tilts of hers, Maggie stepped forwards and took first one and then both of Alex’s hands in her own. “You’re not exactly on your own here, Danvers.”

Encouraged by Maggie’s actions, Alex felt a little more confidence and managed to take a step forward of her own, closing the gap between them. “That’s true. I don’t even know why I’m so nervous with you. I mean, we already kissed.”

One of Maggie’s eyebrows rose. “No, we didn’t.”

Alex’s brows also moved but in the opposite direction, as she frowned in confusion. “Um, yeah we did. It was after you stopped being dead… a phrase I never thought I’d say.”

There was that damned head tilt again. That one single move was almost as lethal as those dimples. “It didn’t happen.”

Okay, whatever Alex had been expecting, it wasn’t that. That had… well that was kind of insulting, actually. Maybe even a little hurtful, and she couldn’t disguise the pout, even as she tried to reply as nonchalantly as possible. “Okay, I get that it wasn’t the greatest kiss, but you have to cut me some slack. I was a little emotional with you doing your whole Lazarus imitation, but it happened. I was holding you in my arms, and I kissed you. And then you kissed me back, too.”

“Oh, it happened,” Maggie agreed, her dimples deepening. How was that even possible?! Before Alex could protest that Maggie had literally just said the complete opposite, the detective continued to explain. “But that was just pixels. You see these lips?” She stepped even closer, now well and truly invading Alex’s personal space as their bodies almost touched. Alex swallowed, hard, as her gaze followed Maggie’s finger, which first raised to touch her own lips, then reached across the now very small gap between them both and pressed lightly against Alex’s. Alex could feel the warmth, the tingle, the fire of that delicate touch, even as the detective continued. “These lips have never touched those lips, so it never happened.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, Alex felt the smile growing on her own lips as she caught up to what Maggie was saying. “Well… that doesn’t seem right.”

“I agree,” Maggie’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Someone should do something about that.”

“Someone should. And you’re definitely someone, Danvers.”

“Yeah, I am.”  Hardly even aware of the movement, she took Maggie’s face very gently in her hands and stroked the detective’s soft cheek with one thumb, studying the look in Maggie’s eyes, almost as if seeking permission. Then she leaned forward, closing the gap between them completely and tilting her head, her lips pressing very gently against Maggie’s own extremely inviting ones.

It was a soft, gentle kiss at first, but then it lingered and deepend, expressing everything that both of them had quite possibly known for some time. They were things they should probably have told one another before now, had certain unreal, but at the same time no less real, life and death situations not kept getting in their way.

It lasted no longer than perhaps half a minute, but to the pair of them, it felt like a lifetime. And it felt wonderful. Alex had no idea she'd been longing for that moment, until it actually happened.

“For goodness sakes, get a room,” someone sighed, and the two of them pulled apart instantly, Alex glancing around to see who had spoken.

Lena Luthor strolled past, hands dug deep into the pockets of her burgundy trench coat, her hair immaculate, her skyscraper heels clicking imperiously on the sidewalk as she glanced in their direction, her bright emerald eyes flashing, betraying her amusement despite her otherwise stern expression. 

With an eye roll, Alex raised a hand and casually extended her middle finger to the young woman, who chuckled as she carried on walking. Then, determined to go back to enjoying the wondrous moment they’d just had, Alex turned back to Maggie, only to find the detective looking at her, a quizzical look in her eye. “What? What is it?”

"Did you just flip off Lena Luthor? Like the billionaire Lena Luthor?"

"Yeah. It happens more often than you'd think,” Alex shrugged. “She's my sister's... I don't even know what they are. They're adults. They'll figure it out."

"Your adopted sister?"

"Yeah."

"Your adopted sister, the reporter, has a close and personal relationship with Lena Luthor?"

"That's one way of putting it, yeah." Alex didn’t like where this was leading, all of a sudden. Maggie had that look in her eye.

"And you work closely with Supergirl."

"So?”  _ Tread carefully, Alex,  _ she told herself.  _ Play it cool. _ “What are you getting at?"

"Nothing, just detecting.” It was Maggie’s turn to shrug this time. “That's what happens when I'm not distracted by pretty girls kissing me."

"Well then, let's give that detective's brain of yours a rest." Grateful for the opportunity to divert Maggie’s attention away from her deductions… which were now hitting far too close to the mark for Alex’s liking, she leaned forward to capture Maggie’s lips with her own once more, wrapping her arms around the detective’s neck even as Maggie’s own arms slipped around her waist, the pair holding onto one another, and neither of them in any hurry to let go.

  
  



	12. Game Over

It had been a very long, very tedious day of paperwork for Maggie - mainly dotting i’s and crossing t’s - but that was just as much a part of her job as actually going out onto the streets and catching the bad guys. Mind you these days, with Alex often making excuses to join her, it did make that side of the job a lot more favorable, she had to admit. 

Arriving home that evening, she put her key in the lock just as Alex’s voice carried clearly from within. “Goddamn it!”

In the few months since moving in together, Maggie had learned that Alex’s temper usually flared like that for one of three reasons. Either she’d brought her work home with her (which wasn’t often, but occasionally happened), she was in the kitchen trying to perfect her cookery skills (because bless her, she wasn’t the best when it came to being domestic in the kitchen, but she was really, really trying). Or, she was… yep, as Maggie opened the door to see Alex sitting on the sofa, a headset on and a games controller in hand, Maggie realised that it was option number three.

Which, now that she considered it, did make sense. It was Wednesday, after all, and Winn and Alex still kept up their (not really very secret) Wednesday game nights. But rather than Alex going round to Winn’s place these days, the two of them had started to play online games that meant they could both play from the comfort of their own sofas. This also meant that Alex didn’t have to abandon Maggie on one of the rare few nights of the week that they could actually be at home together, either. However, Alex did like to get quite…  _ vocal _ sometimes when she was playing and often forgot that the headset she was wearing meant she didn’t realise just how loud she was actually talking. Or shouting. Or cursing at the screen. Or threatening Winn.

Considering some of the threats she’d thrown at him in the past, Maggie wasn’t at all surprised that the nerd was terrified of her. And yet their bromance strangely worked. It was cute, adorable even, and Maggie loved her girlfriend even more for it.

Setting her keys in the bowl on the wine rack/sideboard just inside the door, then closing the door behind her, Maggie raised a hand in a small wave as Alex glanced over. Alex grinned back but was then quickly sucked back into whatever game she and Winn were currently playing. Maggie glanced at the screen quickly but didn’t recognise it.

Pulling off her boots and setting them beside Alex’s larger ones on the shoe rack, she went to the kitchen and grabbed two beers from the fridge, then carried them both over to the sofa, just as Alex set the controller down and pulled off the headset. 

“Hey, how was work?”

“Exhausting,” Maggie sighed as she set the beers on the coffee table then half flopped, half fell to lie across the sofa, her head resting in Alex’s lap. Alex’s hands immediately moved to stroke through her hair and rub her back, and Maggie let out a contented sigh. Yeah, this was where she wanted to be after a long, hard day. “How’s your game going?”

“Hard,” Alex admitted, and there was a slight growl to her voice. Again, Maggie knew her well enough by now to know that Alex hated it when a game got the better of her. “There’s these rings you have to collect before a timer runs out, and I keep missing at least three of them each time. And Winn really isn’t helping, either.”

“Hmmm,” Maggie nodded, continuing to enjoy the fuss and affection that Alex was showing to her for a time, before with a reluctant sigh she sat up. “Want me to have a go?”

“If it means I get past this damned level, be my guest,” Alex nodded, reaching for the wireless controller and handing it over. She picked up the headset and put it back on but only for a moment as she said “Hey, Winn, I’m tagging Maggie in so I can go order us some food… No, she is not going to wear the headset, she’s had a long day and doesn’t need you jabbering in her ear… yes, I know… Winn, remember what I said earlier?... I absolutely will do that, so don’t push me… Fine.”

That done, she pulled the headset off again and got up slowly, stretching a little. “Chinese? I think we’ve still got one of their menus from last time.”

“Sure,” Maggie shuffled along the sofa to take Alex’s seat so that she was directly in front of the tv. “And what are the controls?”

Alex leaned across and pointed to each of the buttons, explained their meaning briefly, then headed for the kitchen to order the food. It took Maggie a couple of attempts to move her character on the screen in the right direction, but eventually she was off and after a few failed attempts where she either crashed or didn’t jump in time, she finally started to get the hang of it. 

On her ninth attempt, she crossed the finish line triumphantly. “Ha! Hey, Alex, job done.”

“Not quite,” Alex’s voice replied from somewhere to Maggie’s left. “You missed a ring.”

“What?” Maggie frowned, scrolling through the level information that came up each time the end of the level was reached. “No I haven’t.” 

Sure enough when she checked, it definitely said ‘Rings Collected: 50/50’.

“See? I got them—” she started, turning to look back at Alex, her words failing her when she saw the redhead down on one knee at the end of the sofa, holding out a small velvet box. 

“There’s one more ring,” Alex’s voice was soft and so very tender as she opened the box carefully to reveal the most stunningly beautiful diamond ring Maggie had ever seen. 

Maggie couldn’t find words. She couldn’t find her voice. All she could do was turn her eyes continuously from Alex, to the ring, back to Alex again. But still she couldn’t find the words. Not until Alex spoke once again, her eyes pleading even as she fought to keep her voice strong.

“Marry me? Please?”

With a trembling hand, Maggie finally reached out and took the ring, turned it over and over as she looked at it for a moment, then slid it slowly, reverently onto her left ring finger, a huge beaming smile breaking free and not stopping even when it reached her eyes, her dimples popping like they’d never done before. “I guess  _ now _ I got them all,” she said at last, and Alex let out a shaky breath.

“So… so that’s a yes?”

“It’s a yes, Danvers,” Maggie confirmed with one of her now infamous head tilts. “C’mere.”

Alex needed no further invitation and closed the gap between them in an instant, their lips moulding together perfectly as they sealed the deal with a kiss, the now empty ring box dropping to the floor, forgotten.

From somewhere off to the side, a very faint voice called out from the abandoned headset.  _ “Alex? Hey Alex! Did you do it yet? Have you asked her? What did she say? Did she say yes? Alex?... Alex! Come on, man, don’t leave a guy hanging! What did she say?!” _


End file.
